Niklaus Saga
by The Fox1
Summary: COMPLETE! A Paladin fights a Succubus and wins, but her soul is trapped within his own. Rated R for violence and language. REWRITE PENDING!
1. Niklaus

A lone figure stalked down a long-forgotten trail. The figure's cloak occasionally opened to reveal light armor and a bastard sword hanging from his right hip. It had been his father's sword; his father, Capt of the Paladin Order of Zakarum's Crag, who tried to prevent his banishment. His father, who'd tried to provide him an escape route, gave him his legendary sword Silence, a parting gift as the enraged monks outside beat his door down.  
  
He had fled the monastery, running into the mountains. The monks in the temple had branded him possessed, the only cure for which is death. His inability to produce his Auras had blaringly displayed his severance from Heaven.  
  
The paladins of his order, his friends, now chased after him, searching to purify him.  
  
"They weren't your friends," Sasha piped up.  
  
"Silence damned!" he lashed back, trying to quell the demon that haunted his thoughts.  
  
"For your information, mortal, I am not a Damned," Sasha retorted, "I'm a Succubus, and rightfully proud of it. Secondly, I'm serious, they weren't your friends."  
  
"Oh, and why is that?" Niklaus shot back, "because they would try to kill me? I should not have run, it would have been the only way to cleanse me of your presence in my soul."  
  
"Spare me," she spat scornfully, "mortal, of all the centuries I've been in this Sanctuary of yours, I can boast to have a better understanding of your nature than you could dream. You ran to survive, there's no shame in admitting it; your kind dies, if not from illness or war, then because it can't keep itself going worth a damn. Your survival depends on shagging some wench so you can keep your line alive, 'cos that's all you have. So don't feed me your exalted horseshit about dying for purity."  
  
She paused. "Seriously, though, they weren't the people you knew. They smelled demonic."  
  
Niklaus staggered. Not from shock at the truth, but shock at the suggestion. "Don't you dare slander my comrades! I've known them since childhood, and they would die before being tainted by Hell."  
  
"Just like you, right?"  
  
Niklaus bit back his retort. Sasha, nevertheless heard the thought.  
  
"My, that was a very un-monk remark! That'd be worthy of some of my sisters. We'll have to tell them that when we see them."  
  
"I will NEVER turn to the forces of Hell!"  
  
"Why not? The gates of Heaven didn't exactly welcome you back and pity your state, did they? All they know is black and white, right and wrong, demon and angel. You paladins," she spat, the very word a curse, "know only what Heaven spoon-feeds you babes so you can grow up big and strong and get a hard-on killing demons. Hell, on the other hand, would welcome you, let you explore your humanity, be what you wanted to be. They might even offer you a job. Or just let you play with my sisters." That last was dripping with suggestion. "If I was very nice, could I watch?"  
  
"Leave me be, demon."  
  
"Well, gee, that would be nice, wouldn't it?"  
  
The warrior continued his forced march in silence, both in thought and speech. Sasha kept quiet also, not wanting to push him too far at once. With a little encouragement, playing up on his humanity and a few well-placed promises could go a long way.  
  
"You forget, demon," Niklaus said suddenly, "I can hear your thoughts as well." He took some small amount of gallows humor from her swearing. She had an...inspired...vocabulary herself.  
  
"Well," she said finally, "at least we know perfectly where the other stands." Niklaus, as much as he would like to disagree on principle, couldn't help nodding.  
  
They traveled on in silence.  
  
Close to sunset, they set up camp at the base of a dead tree. Sasha made Niklaus look at it, growing concerned.  
  
"What is it, demon?" he demanded, impatient. "Surely you are not unfamiliar with trees?"  
  
"It's not that, cretin," she shot back, "This tree has power in it, old power. I'm not sure we should camp here."  
  
"Oh, and why not? Afraid of deadwood?"  
  
Sasha threw up her hands. Figuratively, of course. "Fine! stay here the night! If it gets us killed, it'll be on your head."  
  
Niklaus let the verbal sparring stop. He was getting a headache, partly from exhaustion, partly from her voice. He fell to the ground and dropped off into a dreamless sleep.  
  
Sasha didn't sleep. Although she had no control over his actions, she could still hear with his ears, smell with his nose. And she was nervous. That tree had housed something very nasty. Several somethings.  
  
Goat demons. And they would return soon.  
  
And she was imprisoned in some triple-damned paladin, without any control over her state  
  
Soon enough, she picked up the telltale fall of hooves, the snuffling of breath.  
  
"Niklaus!" she screamed, bringing him to a pained conscious. "What!" he demanded, but heard the goatmen himself. He picked up his sword and faced the party.  
  
It was hard to tell who was more surprised, the demons or the paladin. Sasha was least surprised; hadn't she detected them before?  
  
All debate ended when the paladin charged forward and through one of the goatmen. Although bereft of his Auras, he was still the most formidable swordsman in his region, winning fame and notoriety for his monastery in the championships. He spun back out of the party, taking two more with him.  
  
However, there were eight more, and he had lost the advantage of surprise.  
  
Three of them separated from the rest and advanced on the lone paladin. He watched them warily, recognizing the tactic. Three opponents were dangerous if properly coordinated, he saw that when this three tired, they would be replaced by another three.  
  
This will be difficult.  
  
Sasha's rage boiled. Didn't he see? No, of course not. He wasn't even listening to her. All his attention was focused on the battle, and he couldn't even see the writing in front of his face. She knew he could outrun them; goatmen's lower limbs were for strength and agility, not for running. Goat demons excelled at pitched battles, not hunting. They would give up after a few days, go back and find some village to destroy.  
  
Niklaus spun and dispatched the advance fighter. It went down in a shower of blood and surprise. Sasha was shocked. She realized he hadn't taken his fight with her seriously before she died; that he had killed her in the ultimate form of arrogance.  
  
Her rage boiled over. Her essence, what was left of her being (her proud, savagely beautiful being) exploded out from his mind, letting loose a cry of fury that burst from his lips. The Goatmen stood back, puzzled at this strange new behavior.  
  
Sasha's fury boiled through his veins. Her essence, enraged at the futility of her death, flew like molten lead through the channels of his mind, and flowed into something unexpected.  
  
A paladin's true strength comes from his contact with Heaven. The Eternal Light burns channels through a paladin's soul, making it easier for the Light to transform his Aura into a lethal force on the battlefield. With time, these channels become broader and deeper, allowing more of the Light's power to come in and aid him in his defeat of evil.  
  
Sasha's essence had just stumbled into the channels of his soul.  
  
Niklaus's Aura exploded out from him in fiery oranges and reds, lashing his surroundings. Dirt and debris scattered into the air, and whipped into a right fury. She had channeled herself into the Aura of the Fanatic.  
  
Sasha's Bloodlust had been stirred, and she would either fight or mate her way to its conclusion. The sword in Niklaus' hand decided for her. S/He (Niklaus and Sasha both now) looked about for a new victim and settled on the nearest goat demon.  
  
"That'll do."  
  
Suddenly, they were on him. A few blindingly fast movements later, and they stepped away, admiring their work. Nobody moved for a moment, until the Goatman fell in pieces on the ground.  
  
Without speaking, the remainder of the goatmen surrounded. Sasha was familiar with this tactic; she had devised it. Three would come in at once, attacking on all sides, and if one tired, he would withdraw and be replaced.  
  
There was a flaw, one that her Sister, Red Vex and discovered, and she knew it.  
  
Niklaus received the tactic directly from Sasha, as well as the flaw. He knew how to exploit it by the time the goatmen were in place.  
  
As planned, three leaped in, all swinging from the right. Niklaus parried and spun out to the left of one of the creatures, decapitating it in one move. He continued the rotation, bringing Silence through another Goatman. In a flash, he took two more from behind, and then quickly dispatched the others that rushed in to help.  
  
That left one. It stood idly by, buffing its nails idly on the fur on its chest.  
  
"Not bad, mortal. Your reputation among your peers is well deserved. And you, Sasha, who would have thought you would lend yourself so easily to the paladin's cause? Of course, you always were more eager for...carnal assignments, eh? Well, no matter, Adthck promised me your position if I brought back your head successfully. I'm sure his will do."  
  
"WHAT?!" The demon's words cut through Sasha's bloodlust long enough to hear Niklaus.  
  
"You know him?"  
  
Sasha paused, a feeling of betrayal overtaking her Bloodlust. "Yeah. Careful. He's good and I'm not looking forward to oblivion yet." As she spoke, her Bloodlust cooled and she focused on their foe as much as the Paladin. Niklaus's Aura visibly cooled from the fiery oranges of the Fanatic to the cooler, more collected Concentration of a true warrior.  
  
Thus bolstered, they moved in on the Goatman. Each tried a few tentative thrusts, each opponent seeking the other out. Niklaus would snake in, dart back out, the Goatman would swipe with his pollaxe.  
  
"Ask him if his brother still likes trees," Sasha said.  
  
"What?" Niklaus hadn't quite heard, so intent on the fight, further bolstered by Sasha's presence.  
  
Sasha repeated, and this time Niklaus heard. He repeated this to the demon.  
  
The effect was spectacular.  
  
"Die demon bitch!" he cried, bringing his maul up in a grand stroke. Niklaus saw his opportunity and thrust for the demon's neck.  
  
In the next few milliseconds, Niklaus saw the goatman's armor extend a pseudopod to cover the exposed neck. Niklaus and Sasha saw the plate move. Niklaus continued the thrust at a different trajectory, and the plate couldn't extend far enough to cover his new target. The tip of the sword pierced just under the goatman's jaw, and continued up until a foot of steel stuck out the top of his head.  
  
The Goatman gurgled, eyes rolling, and fell back, taking the sword with him. Sasha, her Bloodlust satisfied, returned to her normal corner in his mind, the Aura retreating. Niklaus retrieved his sword and began scavenging the bodies. He first tugged off the shifting armor the goatman wore. Sasha explained it to him.  
  
"It's a rare piece, stolen centuries ago during the Sin War. It has some semblance of life to it, moving its mass to protect the wearer. It can also repair itself, although to function, it needs to draw mana from its surroundings."  
  
"It wont draw mana off me?"  
  
"Shouldn't."  
  
"Good enough."  
  
He pulled the armor off and wiped the blood away as best he could. He scavenged the body and found something that forced him to sit back.  
  
It was the crest of his monastery.  
  
He sat on his knees in dumbfounded shock, mouth working slowly. Sasha refrained from saying anything; she was in her own turmoil.  
  
Sasha watched him while he worked, a feeling of self-loathing overcoming her. She couldn't believe she was about to suggest this. Shit, this wasn't right. This went against her very being. This was wholly unnatural, and not at all right. But something had happened in that fight, and he had stirred something in her she had never felt.  
  
Compassion.  
  
No! She shouted to herself. He was lost again, lost in betrayal and shock, leaving her in peace. She tried to supress it, write it off as something else.  
  
Perhaps they had been conjoined too long, and he was infecting her now. That had to be it. When she became his Aura, she had absorbed some of his essence into herself, and he had absorbed part of her. But dammit all, she couldn't be feeling this way, she was a damn DEMON!!  
  
The mental shout brought Niklaus back to the present. "You say something?" he asked, absently.  
  
This was not the proud, arrogant warrior who had been her prison for the months they had been together. This was genuinely a broken man, one betrayed by everyone he thought he knew.  
  
Sasha literally felt his pain. She didn't like that. She felt each and every one of his pains, from betrayal to that sickening falling feeling. And she felt every one of them not only through him, but in herself.  
  
She had been betrayed. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the process, but to have it dished out to her was too much.  
  
They both sat there. Shocked. Stunned. There was no adjective to do the feeling justice. At last, Sasha spoke.  
  
"Listen," she began slowly. "There's a lot going on here, and it's coming at us from both ends. I don't know about you, but I don't trust my side anyway, and now even less." She paused. This next part rankled her very being. "Let's call a truce and work together. We both have information the other can use, and we work well together. Those cooling bodies are testament to that. Whaddya say?"  
  
The paladin didn't say anything. Didn't think much, even. At last, he thought back to her.  
  
"You know, if we hadn't fought, and if I hadn't slain you, I wouldn't even be in this situation." He cut off Sasha's retort. "'Course, if I hadn't been out...crusading," he almost spat the word, "then I might have fallen under the same corruption that ruined my brothers."  
  
He considered a while longer. He could give up everything he knew, everything he had been taught. He could consort with this demon for the rest of his life.  
  
Well, he was going to be with the demon...Sasha...for the rest of his life anyway. And she would be his Auras.  
  
"You realize what this means."  
  
"Oh yeah. We give up our time-worn sides and become our own side."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Pause  
  
"Oh, screw 'em all." 


	2. Sasha's Loyalty

Niklaus sat, contemplatively.  
  
"You know, you really should eat," Sasha was saying.  
  
Sasha had been saying that for nearly a day and a half. As of yet, Niklaus had given her no more acknowledgement than to sit even more contemplatively.  
  
"There's a whole family of rabbits over there, and they are tasty," Sasha said, trying to spark some activity.  
  
For her troubles, she received a contemplative lack of any activity, quite antithetical to the result she was attempting.  
  
"Tell you what, I'll catch and cook it for you" Sasha said firmly, and played around among some of Niklaus' channels, until finding the right channel.  
  
A new Aura burned around the listless warrior, and with the slight odor of brimstone, the entire rabbit family found themselves baked to near perfection.  
  
To praise her culinary sense (even the hair had been harmlessly burned off) Niklaus regarded the voluptuous dinner...contemplatively.  
  
Sasha looked (figuratively) to her contemplative host, looked back to the rabbit dinner, and back to her contemplative host. If she could have slumped down next to him, she would have.  
  
"So what the hell's wrong?" she asked, finally.  
  
She was awarded yet more contemplative silence.  
  
Sasha had the desire to slap him in the back of the head. Although in all fairness, she had just as much a desire to do very succubus-like things to him before banishing him to eternal torment in the fires of Hell, but old habits die hard, after all.  
  
For that matter, slapping him in the back of the head was somewhat impossible, even as a repast, along with any other activity.   
  
But one had to start small, and besides Sasha was feeling more trite than lascivious.  
  
Maybe she could convince him to slap himself in the back of the head....  
  
The image of this scarred shiny man slapping himself vigorously in the back of the head amused her greatly, and it was Niklaus' turn to be baffled for a heartsbeat at Sasha's laughter.  
  
However, her train of reasoning soon poured into his own consciousness, and Niklaus had to admit the image was rather diverting.  
  
However, he was seriously attempting to remain in a contemplative frame of mind, and he quickly schooled his somewhat rebellious mouth back to order.  
  
Sasha did not miss the quirk of his lips, however, and caught him in the act with a triumphant "hah!"  
  
Vanquished at last, Niklaus allowed himself a dry chuckle.   
  
"So what is wrong?" Sasha pressed.  
  
Niklaus sighed. They still didn't trust each other, why should they share anything?  
  
"Because," Sasha said, "we have nothing to hide from each other, and in all fairness, you're holding all the cards, really."  
  
Niklaus doubted it.  
  
"Okay, think for a minute, I know you can. I can babble inanely and ignite Auras, but that's really it. I can't stop you from walking into the nearest temple and having us excorcised. Hell, if I'm reading these channels correctly, I could get you there faster, but that's about it."  
  
Niklaus considered, and saw the reasoning.  
  
"Very well," he began, "I can't imagine you doing anything else but tempting me to damnation using various tricks and guises that I may not be able to perceive in time."  
  
"Good," Sasha congratulated him, "at least you're wary of me. That tells me that you're aware of me and my sisters and how we use our wiles to charm all kinds of humans--regardless of sex, mind--down the wide road to Hell.  
  
"In all honesty, though, you and I are in a slightly different position here. We can't hide anything fom each other, and I mean that in the worst way possible. You know that."  
  
Niklaus nodded. He had awoken many times to hear some of Sasha's more...exuberant...thoughts. She had been a succubus, after all.  
  
"Plus," Sasha went on, ignoring that particular train of thought, "Demons don't have souls. We have essences that deteriorate quickly after death. And after finding out that I survived my own death, I really have no desire to see if I can hop to another host.  
  
"If I showed up on Hell's doorstep wearing you, I'd get what would have been my ass fried along with your ass. Hell isn't exactly forgiving--or even all that understanding you know--and I figure if there are two people to watch over my ass--and therefore yours--we might actually survive longer.  
  
"But are you not bound by oaths of loyalty? Are the Evils not your lords and masters?"  
  
Sasha paused. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. I have no desire to see Heaven win over this worthless mudball world. I help you get the demons out of here, you help me with the angels."  
  
Niklaus was taken aback. He hadn't considered that, when they decided to work together, it would involve betraying the side he had fought on for so long.  
  
"I'll even let you get rid of the demons first," Sasha went on. "You can get every last one you want, even trying the Prime Evils themselves if you're particularly suicidal, and if we live through it, we'll go after Heaven."  
  
"But why would you be willing to kill your lords before turning on Heaven?"  
  
"Well," Sasha began, "Heaven ain't going anywhere; they have this fetish about rules, and if it isn't in the rulebook, they would sell their grandmothers before giving in. Hell, however, doesn't play by the rules, and as such neither do I."  
  
"But, don't the Prime Evils command your reverence?"  
  
Sasha looked at her host in complete wonderment. "You really don't know what it is you war against, do you?  
  
"Okay, think about this: Heaven is ruled by order and rules and all sorts of little things that micromanage everyone and make life the most pathetic and boring existence ever.  
  
"Hell, on the other hand, is ruled by complete and total chaos, no rules except simple physics, and there's some wiggle room there. No rules, no organizing principles, nothing except who's better endowed and who can use it to slap everyone else into submission. I hear Diablo one time managed to slap..." Sasha paused, "never mind.  
  
"Anyway, the point is, there aren't any rules except don't get caught. Other than that, it's pretty open."  
  
Niklaus thought. For a very long time.  
  
He was having great difficulty wrapping his head around the inherent chaos that comprised Hell's very nature. And, above all, he couldn't help but think that Sasha might still be in some way deceiving him.  
  
Yet, all her thoughts were laid bare to him, just as his thoughts were to her. Surprisingly, there was no deception.  
  
"Well, of course there's no deception," Sasha said reprovingly, "how else could I deceive you?"  
  
A look of incomprehension moved in, set up shop, and had just gotten married to a look of complete bafflement upon the landscape of Niklaus' face.  
  
Sasha sighed. "Any fool can detect deceit. That's why you'll never see a succubus lie to anyone."  
  
She interrupted Niklaus' incoming retort. "Realize mortal, that the truth is a better deceit than an outright lie. Succubi don't lie, it's true, but we rarely tell the complete truth. Our lovers don't exactly realize our origins, even after the fourth or fifth tryst. 'Course," she continued with a slight grin, "most men don't look at our backs, just our backsides. And it's amazing how to distract a mortal from the wings at our back and the horns on our heads. By the time they might suspect anything, other anatomical features are thinking. Women, too, I might add."  
  
Niklaus was prepare a lengthy discourse in why same-sex couplings were against the teachings of Zakarum when Sasha snorted loudly. In a mental sort of way, of course.  
  
"Honestly, out of the thousands of people who live in this world, can you honestly tell me that it's impossible for every single human to be attracted to a member of the opposite sex? I've done my fair share of gambling, and I know the odds are too high against it.  
  
Niklaus found himself with a headache. Maybe it was because Sasha was doing a lot of thinking instead of him, and his cerebellum simply wasn't used to having two minds occupying the same grey matter.  
  
Or it was that he had just learned a lot about the inner workings of Hell, and said grey matter was straining to understand it.  
  
Niklaus liked to think he was intelligent, so desperately hoped it was the first reason.  
  
"If you're so intent to help me, prove it," Niklaus said.  
  
"You want a test of loyalty from a demon, and one who has told you she has existed entirely in circumstances that encourage only disloyalty?"  
  
Niklaus thought. For a long time.  
  
"Yes," he said, finally.  
  
Sasha sighed. Damn shiny men, she thought. More brawn than brain.  
  
"Well," she began resignedly, "you could start by jumping over that rock over there on your right. There are about twenty skeletons coming in from the east, and that rock should conceal you very nicely."  
  
"Wait! What?! Huh?"  
  
"Trust me," Sasha said, scanning with Niklaus' ears, "I'm a lot more saavy when it comes to this; I just know what to listen for. I figure we've got about twenty minutes before they can see us, which will give you a chance to get somewhere good and not visible."  
  
Niklaus dove for the rock.  
  
"Wait here a moment."  
  
Shortly, he heard the clacking of joints and jaws as said twenty skeletons came ambling by.  
  
They were, quite frankly, horrible. Minions who in life were so consumed by hatred that they attracted the special attention of Mephisto, the eldest Prime Evil. With fell necromancy, he raised them and welded their fell human souls to their corrupt bodies, to return them as a fleshless army upon Sanctuary.  
  
Paladin were, primarily, trained to fight Mephisto's undead in all incarnations.  
  
"Notice the marks on their skulls," Sasha was saying, alarmed at the thought forming in Niklaus' mind, "those markings denote them as Champions, elite among their peers. And there are about twenty of them. I'm not sure attacking them would be a good idea."  
  
"This would be an excellent time to prove your loyalty," Niklaus idly reminded her.  
  
"I didn't think suicide fell into that category," Sasha said sharply.  
  
"If you trust in me, and I trust in you, we'll vanquish our foes," Niklaus returned confidently.  
  
Sasha was very unconfident. Yet resigned to his decision, she explored his channels for a moment. Finding one, she ignited it.  
  
The effect surprised even Niklaus. Electricity arced over his entire frame for a minute before settling in Silence. Stepping out confidently, he faced the entire crowd head on.  
  
It was not the move of a sane mind. The skeletons might have realized this but they were so consumed by their hatred they did not so much take notice as they did charge with equal insanity.  
  
Sasha, however, was not insane, and quickly contemplated the odds of transferring to another host.  
  
They were less than stellar.  
  
Niklaus, however, was unperturbed. On the contrary, he felt more power course over his frame than he ever had with Heaven's blessing.  
  
"This'll do," he said.  
  
He intercepted the lead skeletons at the same time. Catching the left skeleton's axe smartly on his sword, he brought in neatly to intercept the right skeleton's sword. Flicking his sword quickly, he disarmed each and parted skull from body. The now-airborne skulls found themselves flying away from combat into a tree to nestle snugly in a crook in the base.  
  
Their vantage point allowed them to view the shiny man disarm another two and send their weapons flying towards the tree.  
  
Then they didn't see anything at all except oblivion.  
  
Meanwhile, Niklaus dispatched another two in quick fashion, and was moving onto the next pair when he realized they sported two weapons each.  
  
Niklaus stepped back to consider. It gave the rest of the group time to encircle him.  
  
He noticed a little too late.  
  
However, he did notice, and his eye narrowed just slightly.  
  
Sasha realized it was a wink.  
  
It was a wink.  
  
Niklaus was winking at the enemy?  
  
Oh hells, he is insane.  
  
Desperation started to creep in, and the Aura of Lightning began to fade.  
  
"Hold!" Niklaus commanded, and there was something there that made Sasha obey. There was an unearthly confidence in his voice that commanded trust and loyalty.  
  
The skeletons, however, heard Niklaus' odd command, and assumed it meant he would very much like them to stay back.  
  
Upon seeing no real reason to wait, they promptly swooped in, sensing impending death.  
  
Niklaus braced.  
  
Silence quavered, then twitched.  
  
Five skeletons went down.  
  
Sasha blinked. No, she was pretty sure she blinked *after* the skeletons went down.  
  
Wait, she thought, I can't blink, I'm dead.  
  
Then when did those skeletons drop?  
  
Niklaus didn't give her a chance to catch up, but drove into the next skeletons, the ones that were wielding two weapons each.  
  
Perhaps "drove" was too weak a word. As a matter of fact, the Paladin had developed a specific form of attack derived from a senseless and reckless attack headlong into insane odds with extreme risk and minimal chance of survival.  
  
With a knack for understatement, they called it Charge.  
  
Indeed, Niklaus Charged directly into one of the dual-weapon skeletons. The fortified mass of ossified bone and magically reinforced joints never stood a chance.  
  
The other magically bolstered skeleton would have afforded the shiny man a look of shock had it had any muscles left. It probably would have had a look of shock as the shiny man glanced at him with an idle look of righteous fury before swinging Silence through it's ribcage.  
  
However, it exploded violently into a dust cloud from the sheer force of such an enchanted attack, and thus would have been unable to show any facial expression even if it had the musculature necessary for such a feat.  
  
Niklaus tore though the few remaining skeleton Champions and suddenly found himself at the feet of a very tall, very armed demon.  
  
Specifically, the demon bore four arms, and each ended in a taloned fist curled around wicked scimitars.  
  
"Weak points," Niklaus demanded, caught in his lust for battle.  
  
"Joints, 'specially the elbows and knees, watch the scimitars, they work independently," Sasha demanded back, caught in her lust for...well, anything.  
  
The monster swooped in, and Niklaus found himself on the defensive. Indeed, the weapons worked independently, and Niklaus found himself operating largely on the defensive.  
  
The demon bore on, it's sallow skin pulling tight to reveal a jagged smile.  
  
Niklaus was very skilled with a sword, and although he deflected each sword with preternatural skill, occasionally a scimitar would nick in and Niklaus found himself a new wound.  
  
Sasha became so frustrated, she couldn't see clearly. Her frustration turned into rage, and rage became BloodLust....  
  
The Aura of Lightning that had helped Niklaus so well before disappeared to be replaced by the Aura of the Fanatic.  
  
Niklaus struck with renewed vigor and speed, and at last the two parties were on equal terms.  
  
However, they were only evenly matched, and Niklaus and Sasha both knew that it know came down to a matter of endurance.  
  
And Niklaus was already sporting several wounds.  
  
Niklaus' mind worked overtime. There had to be a catch, some clue....  
  
"His arms are jointed the same way," Sasha realized.  
  
Ah hah! Indeed they were, and Niklaus knew how to exploit it.  
  
He dove through the flurry of swords, chancing the few cuts he received, and found himself to the side of the monster before it could react.  
  
The four arms were lethal face-to-face, but when the opponent was at the side, they got in the way of each other.  
  
Niklaus' measured cut could have been seen as an act of benevolence to allow the demon more mobility against such a vector of attack.  
  
However, one would have to be another demon to appreciate such a gesture as anything but the next-to-last stroke.  
  
Indeed, once Niklaus had disarmed the creature, he followed through with a vicious chop to its neck, sending the head spinning to the ground. One profuse spurt of dark blood (which unfortunately caught Niklaus) later, and it was over.  
  
Sasha's BloodLust sated, she extinguished the Aura of the Fanatic and Niklaus sank to his knees, exhausted.  
  
"Okay, so maybe the direct approach wasn't the best," he conceded. 


	3. Ulfgar

A lone man sat eating expertly baked rabbit. At first glance, this was nothing extraordinary. However, the lack of suitable baking facilities made this a rather strange sight.  
  
Additionally, there were at least a score of mutilated bodies laying around the warrior, which did in fact make the overall sight strange indeed.  
  
There were other compounding factors as well; namely, there was a lack of dead flesh. There were a lot of dead bones, but these looked rather bashed, as if the warrior in question had found the bones laying on the ground and decided to jump up and down vigorously on them.  
  
In fact, something very similar had indeed happened. Any knight of Zakarum knows that the only way to prevent the dead from rising again was to grind up the remains so there wasn't enough left in one piece to gain the leverage necessary to get up off the ground.  
  
Not that there weren't various limbs that tried. However, every time something made too much of a show of effort, the man would pause in his meal, get up, walk over to the offending limb, and promptly jump up and down vigorously.  
  
After a while, the ground had a vaguely creepy look to it, with small bone fragments occasionally rolling over, attempting to work woe despite their destroyed state.  
  
Perhaps if someone were to walk barefoot through the clearing....  
  
In the protective shadows of the surrounding trees, a small landmass watched with great interest. Everything about him said "big," from the huge oak legs that were tucked securely under the small mountain that comprised his torso, to the boulders and seige equipment that he idly called "muscles and sinew" rippling under hide that would give a lion pause. A gargantuan double-bitted axe lay flat across his back, barely secured for easy access, and an amazing assortment of belts criss-crossed over the hulking mass with a huge number of knives tucked into each and every slot. His bald head held large, thoughtful eyes, and he sported a black beard that reached down to his insanely muscled chest.  
  
He watched, and waited.  
  
~~~  
  
"Well," Sasha said, "this is boring."  
  
Niklaus nodded. "Yes, but this sort of work is necessary against Mephisto's Chosen. We're fortunate that the enchantments animating these bodies can't reassemble them, otherwise we would be in genuine trouble."  
  
"Don't you shiny men have some kind of dramatic, shiny way to vanquish the foes?"  
  
"Well, someone once said that the morning light shining down on an army of Paladin stomping the fell forces of Mephisto was as the blessing of H--"  
  
He was cut off by a loud snort, and he had the mental image of Sasha rolling her eyes.  
  
"You're telling me a bunch of armored knights jumping up and down on a lot of dead things is a romantic image? Please don't tell me that image is a source of inspiration."  
  
Niklaus protested. He felt that a lack of any actual words might seem like protest.  
  
Sasha didn't buy it. "What idiot made that observation?"  
  
"Actually, we were told that by our instructors at the training salons...," Niklaus trailed off.  
  
"Uh-huh," Sasha said, "you were told that by a higher-ranking shiny-man, and you believed him?"  
  
"At the time, I had no reason to distrust him," Niklaus said rather defensively.  
  
"Uh-huh," Sasha said, unconvinced.  
  
"Really!" Niklaus exclaimed, "I didn't!"  
  
Sasha nodded conspiratorially. Mentally, she punched him in the arm.  
  
"So when did you decide to trust me enough to be defensive towards me?"  
  
Niklaus' eyelid twitched. Sasha's paradoxical speech would have given his philosophy teachers pause.  
  
Niklaus just got a headache.  
  
Sasha sighed. "If you didn't trust me, you wouldn't bother defending your actions to me. You'd just write me off as a parasitic demon and ignore me as best as you can, holding our survival over my head to ensure I ignite Auras."  
  
Niklaus considered his words carefully before speaking.  
  
"When one battles often enough, he learns to gauge his opponent by how they fight. With enough practice, it's amazing how well you can read your opponent.  
  
"The same holds true for your comrades. If you can take enough time to watch them, you can see much of their character in how they fight."  
  
"So you gauged me by how we fought together?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Now it was Sasha's turn to get a headache. Unfortunately, she didn't have her own head anymore, and thus Niklaus' headache was compounded.  
  
He put down the rabbit and gritted his teeth.  
  
"Okay," he tried, "first off, see if you can ignite this Aura." Mentally, he showed her how the Aura felt coursing through him. Sasha rummaged around in his soul until she found a channel that resembled his description. Igniting it, Niklaus found his headache diminish rapidly.  
  
"Much better," he sighed. "Okay," he started again, feeling much more able to discuss the finer points of combat.  
  
Niklaus discussed at length the finer points in gauging an enemy. It was very informative to the succubus, for she had only engaged in combat one time, and had come out decidedly the worse for it.  
  
Despite Niklaus' ardent affirmations, however, she doubted one could tell how often one's opponent had soiled his pants before battle.  
  
On the whole, however, Sasha was impressed. Usually, she didn't concern herself much with combat--her skills were decidedly not towards hack and slash--thus she was completely unaware of these points. Idly, she wondered if Hell's minions considered these things when they went into combat.  
  
"I doubt it," Niklaus said, catching the thought, "only a few of them ever show any thought while in combat. Even that big one over there," he said, gesturing to the cauterized body that had been the four-armed demon, "only had an innate skill, but it was more instinctual than trained. If it had possessed any real training, we wouldn't be here."  
  
"You aren't afraid of dying?"  
  
"I'm mortal," Niklaus chuckled, "I'll either die on a battlefield or die in bed, but you said yourself that one day I'll die. Everyone has their time."  
  
Sasha hadn't considered that. She found the situation a little distasteful, actually; to be saved from death by a miracle of circumstance only to die again because her host wouldn't endure forever.  
  
"And you're comfortable with this?" Sasha asked, incredulously.  
  
"Of course," Niklaus replied, "human so--" he cut off abruptly as a bush moved ever so slightly. There was someone nearby.  
  
Sasha and Niklaus both kicked themselves. How long had they been idly chatting, in full view of anything that happened to pass by, as oblivious to their surroundings as Royal Treasurers?  
  
Moreso, actually; treasurers have to at least make it to and from court.  
  
Silence was unsheathed and the rabbit forgotton. With a primal battlecry, Niklaus charged into the woods, Sasha igniting an Aura.  
  
A Paladin's Charge, in it's most refined form, has at various times sent demons flying (literally), broken down doors, even shaken mortar loose in castle walls.  
  
There's something to be said for idiotic recklessness.  
  
Niklaus had spent several years perfecting this form, and had become quite proficient at it. Although unable to loosen mortar, it had been quite useful in various other applications, not the least of which was battle.  
  
Thus, when he rammed home into the side of what he swore was a landmass, he expected to make something of a dent.  
  
He did not expect to find himself sprawled on the ground, having nearly knocked himself senseless by bouncing off of, as he now saw, an ogre.  
  
"Hells, what is it?!" Sasha exclaimed, as shocked as Niklaus.  
  
"It's human!" Niklaus gaped aloud, upon closer examination.  
  
"It talks!" the landmass rumbled with equal surprise, leaning in for a closer examination of the comparatively diminuitive warrior.  
  
Fearing an avalanche, Niklaus scrambled backwards, holding Silence at the ready.  
  
In an amazing display of geology, the talking landmass reversed it's own topple and stood to an imposing height.  
  
Niklaus looked up.  
  
And up.  
  
"Hells!" Sasha breathed, "he could out-slap Diablo!" Quickly turning (mentally) to Niklaus, she said hurriedly "when you were in that monastery, did you ever wonder--"  
  
"No!" Niklaus shouted mentally, and rather desperately at that.  
  
"Aw, c'mon," Sasha said a little desperately herself, trying to catch a shot of anything in Niklaus' periphery vision.  
  
Sasha was so insistent in her desire to wander downwards that Niklaus' inadvertantly flicked downwards; however, he regained control of his rebellious senses and continued their travel upwards.  
  
At last he saw a pair of eyes (they must be eyes, they're two sockets on the topmost outcropping) peering curiously down at him over enormous pectorals.  
  
The giant crossed his arms, and Niklaus lost sight of the eyes above the tree trunks that comprised his forearms.  
  
"Can he still see us?" Sasha wondered.  
  
"I'm not eager to find out," Niklaus answered, seeing the grip of a mighty axe peer out from behind the behemoth's hip.  
  
"I'm sorry," the landmass spoke, "but it really looked like you were talking to yourself. I also noticed you had some leftover rabbit over there.  
  
"Now, I do a lot of travelling myself, and I can really appreciate cooking. 'Course," the giant rumbled, almost to himself, "I can also appreciate how people can talk to themselves, it does get lonely out here in the wilds...."  
  
Bringing himself to the present moment, the giant considered the dwarfed Paladin.  
  
"It sure does make it easier to be out here if you don't have to talk to yourself, know what I mean? Why don't we work together for a while, keep each other company? If you want to keep talking to yourself, that's all right too; if you don't mind, I'd like to jump in sometimes. I don't really talk to myself all that often, so I guess I get especially lonely."  
  
Niklaus had never heard a continent speak. This landmass in particular seemed an open-faced kind of man, with large, friendly eyes (now that Niklaus could see them) despite the huge beard. He considered: the man seemed nice enough, although a little slow.  
  
"You sure we can trust him?" Sasha asked, a little worried; the mountain man (literally) seemed a little too simple, perhaps "little simple" being the only thing small about him.  
  
"For the moment," Niklaus replied mentally, "we should keep an eye on him, though."  
  
"Obviously."  
  
Niklaus was about to turn and gesture him towards his and Sasha's perch when something caught his eyes.  
  
The giant's mighty arms unfurled, and Niklaus saw wicked-looking knives glint in each hand. Springing into action, he brought Silence around.  
  
The giant released, and Niklaus whipped his blade in a tight arc, deflecting the knives wide. It was then that Sasha noticed something come up from behind Niklaus.  
  
No words were transmitted, only primal perceptions, and without stopping to look Niklaus spun and cut through the form behind him.  
  
Apparantly some of the various limbs Niklaus and Sasha had separated had lain still, letting their more foolish comrades crumble. A few arms and hands were still intact enough to join together with a skull. Creating perhaps the oddest homunculus Niklaus would have seen, the creation was poised to strike.  
  
Niklaus did what he had trained for: he cleaved the homonculus in one smooth cut.  
  
Five times.  
  
When he was done, the skull quavered in midair for a heartbeat, bereft of any support at all. It would undoubtably have tried to bite their ankles once it hit the ground, but Niklaus knew from experience to stomp from behind.  
  
He heard a sharp ring on either side, and suddenly the skull was shattered from two wicked-looking throwing knives incoming from both directions.  
  
Hell may have some wiggle room when it comes to physics. Sanctuary is not so lenient, and the skull shattered in strict accordance with the rules of that realm.  
  
Niklaus looked to his right and left, and saw scorch marks on rocks on either side, presumably where the (apparantly) knives had richocheted off to shatter the skull.  
  
In wonderment, Niklaus turned back to the leviathon. He stood there again, arms over his chest, concealing much of his face again.  
  
"I'm sorry," the giant rumbled, "we didn't get off to the best start, did we? I am Ulfgar, son of Kveldulf," the leviathon rumbled proudly, "and I saw your handiwork here on my way through. It's not everyday one can see a Paladin's skills."  
  
Ulfgar paused. "However," he added subtly (as a brick wall), "I had no idea of the brotherhood's ability to debate themselves, or cook out in the wilds. If I could find us more food, and you cook it, we can put any cook from my homeland to shame.  
  
"What do you think?" Ulfgar announced with a winning smile, "shall we go and eat our way to victory? These monsters are no match for you or me, I say we journey on to the noble goal of round stomachs!" He leaned in closer, resting on one knee to get eye-level with Niklaus "There's a small town about thirty miles from here, and they'll make you a hero for about five coppers."  
  
Niklaus looked in bafflement, the image of a toymaker flitting across his mind and wondering what that had to do with food.  
  
"I've heard it's a type of meal some people make," Sasha supplied.  
  
Niklaus smiled instantly as he realized the small joke (two things small about the giant now) Ulfgar had made.  
  
Niklaus couldn't help but like the living mountain towering over him. 


	4. The Village

(Author's Note) Backing up a moment: Namely, Ulfgar is mine, although Blizzard et al owns the actual character class he belongs to. Duh me.  
  
~~~  
  
Continental drift is a phenomenon that takes years to occur, and even then occurs at such a slow rate as to be undetectable by the naked eye.  
  
To have such a geological pattern keep pace with him was very disconcerting to Niklaus. It might not have been so bad had Sasha not been constantly trying to catch any glimpse of the behemoth's accouterments out of Niklaus' periphery. Her occasional giggles kept Niklaus in a maddening state of frustration.  
  
"Aw, c'mon Nik," she was saying, having given him an abbreviated name, "he's hot, even you can't deny it."  
  
"I can, quite easily, and I would appreciate it if you mind that huge axe he just happens to wield like a toy."  
  
"I dunno, he seems kinda simple, he might think it's a toy."  
  
Niklaus snorted. "I doubt that; he was more than capable with those knives; even my old throwing instructor would have trouble keeping up. Plus, I think his behaviors are really a sham."  
  
"Uh-huh," Sasha said, unconvinced.  
  
"He hit that homonculus by ricocheting knives off nearby rocks and then going through a skull that was about to fall down, and that was after I blocked the first pair he threw. That takes an incredible understanding of a lot of things to pull that off."  
  
"Enough practice can make anyone a decent shot," Sasha countered, "I'm sure you weren't born with an instinctive understanding of swords."  
  
"Yes, but throwing weapons are a different matter; they're much more difficult to master, especially in those conditions."  
  
"Yeah, whatever," Sasha responded, clearly unconvinced.  
  
Niklaus let the matter drop. The succubus could keep her opinion of the continent at their side; as long as she held an Aura at the ready, he would rest easier.  
  
"Aww, would the strong sure Pawadin feew safer if lil' ol' me kept him safe?" Sasha mocked.  
  
"And trees are just trees, right?"  
  
Sasha straightened. In her own way. "I was right, wasn't I?"  
  
Niklaus smiled slightly to himself and chanced a glance at his behemoth traveling companion.  
  
The behemoth in question loped along at an easy pace; for Ulfgar, it was an easy pace, for Niklaus, it was somewhat exhausting keeping up and he was seriously considering asking Sasha to ignite an Aura to help him keep up.  
  
However, Auras are meant to be shared, and if Ulfgar did not feel any benefit to his own mighty stamina (and only increasing the distance between himself and his companion) he might wonder why Niklaus was depriving him of an Aura if they were, in fact, allies.  
  
After Niklaus had worked himself into a fine sweat, the giant finally glanced down at him. "Don't Paladin have an Aura that gives them stamina?"  
  
Niklaus glanced up, finding himself in a quandary. "We do," he began cautiously.  
  
"Honesty might work out best here," Sasha hissed.  
  
"Somehow a possessed Paladin stirs far less than unswerving loyalty," Niklaus snapped back.  
  
"Not that, jackass! Tell him you don't want to boost his own stamina and you still lag behind."  
  
"Oh," Niklaus retorted shamefacedly, and then relayed that information to Ulfgar.  
  
Ulfgar looked askance at him. "I'm sure Paladin can ignite an Aura and not have it bless everyone around them. It wouldn't make much sense if Paladin were busy blessing their enemies while they tried to kill them."  
  
Niklaus was more than happy when Sasha ignited the right Aura and they were able to keep up with the Northman.  
  
The companions travelled in relative silence (barring the occasional conversation between Niklaus and Sasha).  
  
After several hours of journeying, they came upon the town which hosted the restaurant Ulfgar had boasted of. The events occuring between them and the town, however, forced them to pause.  
  
Namely, they beheld a rather atrocious sight: the local militia were engaged in mortal combat against immortal foes. Undead soldiers bore down on the hapless defenders, triumphant through superior numbers and superior skills.  
  
At the rear of the force stood some form of a zombie colonel. He bore a simple war hat and a riding crop that dripped with ichor (likely after using it on some demon that wasn't doing *something* right, Sasha observed).  
  
The undead colonel was rasping orders, Niklaus couldn't really understand what it said. What he could tell was that the banner he bore was in fact representative of Mephisto, there were undead down there, and he was, in fact, still trained as a Paladin.  
  
Do we have to do this again?  
  
Yes, we don't know what purpose these demons serve, but we can assume it's for ill purposes.  
  
Naw, really? Is this shiny-man reasoning, or--  
  
"We should do something," Ulfgar rumbled quietly, almost too low for Niklaus to hear.  
  
Niklaus and Sasha broke from their mental sparring match to notice the giant.  
  
Ulfgar looked back at the warrior and gestured towards the troops. "That one at the head, he's talking about their risen lord, and how they must now answer the call of the 'maiden' or something and visit her blessing upon the worthless inhabitants of this hamlet. Possibly Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish."  
  
Niklaus looked to his companion in awe. His companion glanced back. "What?" Ulfgar asked, "did you really think I was as big a fool as I let on?"  
  
A smile played around Niklaus' lips. "I had hoped not," he grinned at his large friend.  
  
With a smug look towards Sasha, Niklaus listened raptly as Ulfgar detailed a course of action. He would have liked to offer his own insight, but could not see any hole in the strategem.  
  
If any strategy consisting of two people overthrowing a seige consisting of at least fifty undead soldiers on their own merits and dismissing any silly thoughts of tactical retreats, expectations of the local militia, or any real hope of success could be construed as without holes, it was indeed flawless.  
  
The colonel in command of the siege would have been very interested to know how such a strategy would know any success, but as it was he was rather preoccupied by the battle before him. Although not necessary to their ultimate mission, it did give his troops some added bloodlust to fuel their Hate.  
  
The colonel turned to consider other factors, specifically a man-sized battering ram that burst into his back without any courtesy or warning, sending him airborne.  
  
While the colonel paused to consider his new status as a creature of inadvertent flight, he found a new concern to preoccupy himself with. Specifically, the arrival of another creature of the air that seemed determined to rendevous with him midair.  
  
Perhaps creature wasn't quite the right word. However, it moved visibly, bore a large axe which should have been cumbersome (inexplicably, it wasn't) and roared ferally as it brought said axe around to negotiate on behalf of the village. The colonel might have considered the terms "seige engine," "small fortress," or even "impending geologic disaster in the form of a meteor that will extinguish all life on this world, starting with my dessicated carcass," but Ulfgar's axe met with the colonel before he could compile an adequate list of more accurate phrases.  
  
The Northman removed his axe--still midair--and pirouetted with preternatural grace as the again-expired undead colonel landed on the ground. Ulfgar followed his foe to the ground, but since the colonel was dead (again) it could not move fast enough to get out of the way of the huge feet that sought solid ground once again.  
  
Niklaus, however, had already raced ahead again, and Ulfgar lifted himself out of the dust cloud into the air once more to reach the Paladin so they could pursue the fight as a unit.  
  
Merus the town guardsman was fighting for his life against a foe that really couldn't care for its own sake. The undead bore ruthlessly down on him, and he was hard pressed to maintain his own defense, much less mount any offense against his foe.  
  
In times such as those, one is often forgiven by his peers for a moment of less-than-rational thought. Merus found himself in just such a moment, and realized that he was going to die. He would die either under the onslaught of this evil beast, or under another.  
  
It was that moment that Merus forsook all defensive considerations and swung at the undead creature with all his might, hoping to at least save his comrades from one more evil being to fight.  
  
His weapon arced beautifully, aiming directly for his foe's skull, a strike that would cleave the exposed bone beautifully.  
  
Merus missed.  
  
He looked down and saw the zombie had crouched under the blow and let him throw himself off balance in the desperate gambit. The undead readied its knife and lunged to strike at his exposed flank. Merus closed his eyes to the explosion of pain he knew was coming.  
  
A gust of air blasted past him, and he still had not felt the deathblow.  
  
Cautiously, he opened his eyes, and saw a pile of dust settling on the ground before him. He couldn't shake the inexplicable feeling that this was the foe that had so cunningly prepared his deathstroke.  
  
Marus looked to his right, and saw a figure weilding a longsword decimating another zombie and moving quickly onto the next.  
  
Niklaus tore through the ranks of undead as a scythe through grain. Silence flashed, keeping true to its namesake as cries of Hate died and twitching limbs stilled.  
  
Niklaus was in perfect form, dispatching undead after undead, fully immersed in his element. He was a blur among his foes, and the undead soldiers that were so ruthless and efficient now had the tables turned on them.  
  
Silence--and its weilder--blurred as they moved through the undead. Despite everything, Sasha was enjoying herself. Although definitely not combat-saavy, she felt that Niklaus was more than capable of keeping their communal hide alive.  
  
Not that she would admit it while he was paying attention, of course.  
  
However, while Niklaus had fallen into the easy rhythym of combat, ensconsed within Sasha's Aura of Concentration, Sasha was getting worked up, thrilled at the power she and the shiny-man wielded.  
  
Before long, Sasha was rather excited by the whole experience, and the cool blues and greens of the Aura of Concentration began to flicker with the excited reds and oranges of the Aura of the Fanatic. Sasha's excitement grew, and her Aura pulsed with orange, tinged with blood reds.  
  
Niklaus, helpless amidst Sasha's BloodLust, had no recourse but to swing at insane speeds, parrying and striking so fast that several zombies wondered how they found themselves with several limbs missing before a quick and ruthless decapitation.  
  
One such zombie found itself laying between its own feet. After a moment's confusion, it realized that only its skull was between its feet. It then saw a booted--and, unfortunately living--foot sweep around and kick it directly into the head of another hapless foe.  
  
Both skulls shattered on impact, creating a dust cloud that blocked view of the Paladin from the support troops.  
  
Suddenly, the cloud parted as a form blurred into those exact same support troops. In a dizzying spin, and quite a bit of curving steel courtesy of a large axe, there were a plethora of loose limbs scattered upon the ground.  
  
Ulfgar had caught up with Niklaus, and was exploiting the mass confusion created by the possessed Paladin in a whirling avalanche of destruction.  
  
The imposing--and coincidentally, living--seige engine had literally burst onto the scene, and joined Niklaus causing despair, disorder, and chaos better than any minion of Hell.  
  
It would have brought a tear to the undead colonel's eye, but after his hellish ressurection, he was bereft of any tear ducts.  
  
Plus, Ulfgar had ended his life (again) rather pointedly, making it somewhat difficult to cry for anyone.  
  
Niklaus, meanwhile, was helpless amidst Sasha's BloodLust. He could only swing faster, harder, buoyed by Sasha's Aura but it still wasn't enough.  
  
Frantically, he hoisted up a zombie by its corroding armor and began swinging it around in one hand, using it as an impromptu club, Silence held in the other.  
  
The zombie was less than thrilled at this turn of events, and flailed helplessly as it collided nonstop into comrade after comrade.  
  
Ulfgar reared back, and began spinning in a curious display of balance, technique, and an inhuman resilience to getting dizzy. Niklaus stood confidently within the destructive radius of Ulfgar's motions, and struck out against the remaining zombies, helpless for Sasha's Bloodlust.  
  
Sasha was euphoric; she shuddered at the pleasure of the kill, the thirst for decimating her former comrades allied with Niklaus' ease and grace with the sword. Each ring of Silence against unprotected dead flesh was a new wave of pleasure, and she revelled in it.  
  
So much that she exploded in a flash of BloodLust, that lascivious thrill at the infliction of horrendous pain upon one's foes.  
  
Raw energy nearly drowned Niklaus as he was caught in the blast mid-swing.  
  
His foes were less lucky as the possessed Paladin decimated them so quickly even Ulgar was surprised.  
  
The Paladin seemingly disappeared, only to reappear as flashes of destruction as another dozen undead warriors collapsed from sheer disintegration.  
  
Ulfgar caught the occasional glimpse of the Fanatic Paladin, the occasional arc of his powerful sword, as Niklaus was carried helplessly along by his own raw power.  
  
If Niklaus had been aware of Ulfgar's musings, he would very much have liked to argue over "his" raw power. However, he was rather preoccupied with surviving Sasha's Bloodlust. This was no normal BloodLust, however, this went far beyond anything Sasha had ever done.  
  
Niklaus realized with a cold knot in his stomach that they had run out of zombies and Niklaus was not sure if Sasha in her state would discern between Hell's forces and Sanctuary's inhabitants.  
  
Niklaus was therefore relieved when Sasha finally spent herself and Niklaus collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, Silence forgotten.  
  
They sat there, dazed at the experience. Villagers peered out from the hasty walls that served to slow the hellish assault to gaze in wonder at the axe-toting warrior and the exhausted knight. For the longest time, neither said anything.   
  
"Was it good for you too?" Sasha asked meekly. 


	5. The Bar

Two men in a bar sat side-by-side drinking. In and of itself, this was not unusual, or even a solitary occurence. That the two were armed with a rather formidable array of weaponry was also not unusual, and even went so far as to help them blend in.  
  
It was, however, odd that not two days ago these two men were single-handedly responsible for breaking the seige that had befallen the town. That these two were capable of smiting an entire unit of enemies who were remarkable in their ability to not stay dead (i.e. zombies), had inspired rather a lot of attention, fear, no small amount of concern.   
  
The town council had offered to empty their coffers into Niklaus and Ulfgar's chests, but it had been Ulfgar who declined the entire coffer in lieu of directions to this tavern that made "heroes."  
  
This was not to say that he declined *every* coin offered, and thus took enough for the both of them to more than get buy.  
  
Rather they would have had enough, but apparantly Ulfgar had planned to stimulate the local economy by pouring their rewards into the taverns without regard for the morrow.  
  
As they stood outside the council manor, Ulfgar split the money equally between them. Sasha was full of her own ideas.  
  
"Actually, I'm kinda looking forward to trying this 'hero' he's always talking about. I've never tasted human food before"  
  
"Seriously?"  
  
"Well, succubus tastes aren't quite suited to human food, we tend to go more for--"  
  
"Okay, I get it," Niklaus interrupted, quite sure he didn't want to know where that was going.  
  
"Aw c'mon! I was going to say Hell's diet! Geez, even succubi need a break, y'know!"  
  
Sasha got to pondering. "Y'know Nik, as long as we're stuck together, you could probably stand to lose a few of those high-handed oaths of yours."  
  
"What! No!" Niklaus exclaimed mentally, "Why?"  
  
"Well," Sasha said, "it's not like you're exactly a Paladin anymore, you're not trying to prove anything to Heaven, since they can't hear you, you may as well enjoy life while you can."  
  
"A Paladin is not just a Paladin because Heaven hears his prayers. A Paladin is so by his deeds--"  
  
"And a little fun is prohibited so fiercely?"  
  
"It's not a matter of fun! It's a matter of spiritual purity--"  
  
"Okay, think very carefully about that last thing you said," Sasha remarked reprovingly.  
  
Niklaus wavered.  
  
"I promise you this is no attempt to lead you to Hell," Sasha said sincerely.  
  
Niklaus, in hindsight, noticed that he did not oppose her suggestion quite so quickly from that moment on.  
  
Which was what lead two men to sitting at a bar. All things considered, it was a rather odd sight.  
  
Specifically, for one who had solemnly taken so many oaths, Niklaus was actually having more fun breaking each and every one of them than anyone had a right to be. Sasha was as good as her word, teaching him everything he now knew about enjoying life. Happily, a large part of Niklaus had rubbed off on Sasha; on making their way to the now-legendary tavern, she had pointed out the beggar that Niklaus had missed, and noted he an extra healing salve that helped soothe the beggar's teeth. Or lack thereof. Truthfully, though, it had done much to settle Niklaus' stomach (and, vicariously, Sasha's).  
  
"Nik, I have a bit of a confession," Sasha said, during part of their meal.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"In that battle, when my Bloodlust exhausted me, well," Sasha paused, "I could have gone a lot longer," she rushed through.  
  
Niklaus swallowed his hero carefully. "You mean you reigned yourself in?"  
  
"Yeah, something like that," Sasha sounded almost embarrassed.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well," Sasha sounded very embarrassed, "I mean, it was great and all, but there were those townspeople there, and I didn't want them dead and--"  
  
"Wait," Niklaus interrupted, "you prevented us from killing a lot of innocent people. Are you well?"  
  
"Yes! No, I don't know," Sasha said, frustrated, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the killing and all, but I didn't want the people dead."  
  
Niklaus smiled to himself. "Don't worry," he said, "I don't think you're losing your touch."  
  
"It's not that," Sasha said, "it's..." she blew out a breath of air, "well...I'm still a little unsatisfied."  
  
Niklaus' eyebrows launched towards his hairline.  
  
"I mean, couldn't you get in a barfight or something?"  
  
"Ah...," Niklaus looked around somewhat wildly. "No, I don't think that would be a very good idea."  
  
Sasha sighed forlornly. Actually, Niklaus felt bad for her.  
  
Though neither of them would admit it, they had developed a genuine friendship, as both moved slowly from their initial hostility to wariness to acceptance to comradeship.  
  
Ulfgar, meanwhile, was talking about his favorite subject: anything that could be digested.   
  
Alcohol, specifically.   
  
Ulfgar had a seemingly endless reservoir devoted to anything fermented. Beer, mead, wine, anything went into the mountainous mass like a drop in a desert. Currently, he was teaching Niklaus the finer points of alcohol.  
  
"Now, mead," he went on, "is shit. Unless you can find someone who can make it the right way."  
  
"You've said that about everything that's passed in front of us," Niklaus pointed out, munching on a turkey leg (Sasha's suggestion).  
  
"And it's all true. Most alcohol is shit. You gotta find someone who has good stock, or you're drinking warm piss."  
  
"Hasn't stopped you."  
  
"Better lukewarm piss than the water in a village." Niklaus couldn't argue this, after seeing what went into the local stream. "'Sides," Ulfgar continued, "piss is an aquired taste, but if you can drink it, you'll survive a lot longer around here."  
  
Niklaus returned to his food and drink. Although he was eating, he had started to feel a litte fuzzy around the edges.  
  
As the hours went on, the two continued drinking, getting themselves royally sloshed. Even Sasha was starting to slur.  
  
"Hay, Nik," she said during one break between drinks, "you know that one wench over there has been eyeing you ever since we came in?"  
  
"Yeah, I wondered if she was eyeing me or my purse-strings."  
  
"Naw, I've flashed that look at too many men not to recognize it in someone else."  
  
"Surely you're not suggesting...."  
  
"Why not? It's not like you've been particularly fond of keeping your paladin oaths. 'Sides," she said affectionately, "you've got me to watch your back and keep your Auras going."  
  
Niklaus thought for a minute. "I've never done this before."  
  
"Just do what I tell you."  
  
Niklaus got to his feet. Surprised, he found he was a good bit steadier on his feet than his drinking partner. "I plan to proposition that woman over there," he announced to Ulfgar.  
  
"Godspeed, my brother," Ulfgar responded solemnly, "and regale us with your acts of heroism upon your return." He finished with a wobbly-handed salute.  
  
Niklaus strode over to the woman, who was now standing by the stairs. Following Sasha's lead, he quickly and smoothly enticed the woman into leading him upstairs. Ulfgar watched them go with a smooth grin.  
  
With a constitution born out of years' endurance in the highlands of Arreat (and eating things that were rather disgusting), the misty look clouding his eyes cleared, and he politely refused another round of drinks. Paying his and Niklaus' bill, he sauntered upstairs.  
  
Passing quietly down the hallway, he listened into the door he had heard Niklaus and the woman enter. Assuring that things were well underway within, Ulfgar made his way into his own room. Although he weighed considerably more than Niklaus, whereas Niklaus' steps were audible through the ceiling, Ulfgar's could not have been heard by the most skilled hunter.  
  
Once in his room, he pulled out his ancestral axe and began inspecting the edge. This he did methodically, absently, his mind on other things.  
  
Specifically Niklaus.  
  
For a paladin, Niklaus was a strange one. Every paladin he had ever met had bedecked themself in gleaming plate armor. Ulfgar had fought with paladins across Westmarch, and even fought against paladins to safeguard his homeland. Only young or untested paladin possessed less than plate; it was almost as if plate armor was a mark of achievement.  
  
Niklaus bore small plate, only covering his torso and thighs. Ulfgar knew this wasn't due to inexperience; he had seen Niklaus dispatch several would-be thugs, without killing a single one. Ulfgar had seen enough combat to realize that restraint, not inability, had left those attackers alive.  
  
Most paladin he had met were arrogant bordering on hubris; any act or feat of any kind was glorified, as if offered up as a sacrifice to the Light. Niklaus acted completely opposite; any act was downplayed, as if he was frightened of drawing attention to himself.  
  
Then there were his Auras. Ulfgar knew what it felt like to fight near a warrior of the Light and be similarly blessed by Heaven's Grace. Grace was infinite, and it was only a matter of tolerance and skill that determined how far a paladin could extend his own blessing to others.  
  
Niklaus fought with Auras; Ulfgar had seen them. Yet he had not felt them move through him as they had from other paladin. It was almost as if Niklaus' Auras benefitted only the warrior. Almost as if Niklaus had lost Grace.  
  
So then why can he still ignite Auras?  
  
Ulfgar broke out of his musings to notice he had cleaned his battleaxe, brace of throwing knives, and had polished his weapons belt. Looking about, he pondered about talking to some of the women downstairs himself.  
  
Then it clicked.  
  
Paladin were extremely awkward in public. All they knew was Light. It was joked that Light could only get a paladin hard, and Ulfgar secretly thought it was true.  
  
Niklaus had sweet-talked a woman into bed without any hesitation, any awkwardness.  
  
Into bed.   
  
Ulfgar reeled. Into bed?!  
  
He picked up his weapons and marched to Niklaus' room. Peering in, he only saw a very dazed and half-asleep woman in bed. He marched downstairs.  
  
Niklaus was busy downing another beer and turkey leg. It was obvious he was very hungry, and very invigorated. In one smooth move, Ulfgar had drawn a knife, aimed, and thrown at the demon posing as a paladin.  
  
Niklaus was busy wolfing down a turkey leg. Sasha was busy making lewd comments.  
  
"In all Hells, boy, were you determined to destroy the inn? It's a wonder there was anything left of her when you finished."  
  
"It was your idea, remember?"  
  
"Yeah, but if I had thought to find out if you were a virgin...."  
  
"I suppose the fabled lust of a succubus had nothing to do with that? I notice you're not 'unsatisfied' and itching for a fight anymore."  
  
"Now you listen he..." Sasha cut off as she heard steel rasp against leather. Niklaus missed it, but Sasha had had centuries of foiled assassination attempts from angel, man, and of course demon.  
  
It was her quick instruction that Niklaus dodged back, saw the knife spinning and caught it by the handle. Succubus senses weren't necessarily more acute, but centuries of honing made them preternatural.  
  
Before Niklaus could sputter a confused remark, Ulfgar was on him. Having leapt over the rail towards Niklaus, hs axe left a whooshing noise right where Niklaus had been.  
  
Niklaus fell off his chair backwards. Landing on his back, he lifted the chair with his feet and kicked it at Ulfgar. Rolling backwards, he picked up another chair and aimed it at the huge barbarian. Ulfgar knew not to advance; every paladin could make a simple tree branch a vicious weapon.  
  
Instead he drew out another knife. Before he could aim though, Niklaus dashed through the door and into the night.  
  
Ulfgar chased the demon through the better part of the night. He only caught up when the paladin, despite his Auras, tired and fell to his knees. Ulfgar caught up, but was too tired to raise his axe to fell the demon. He cursed at himself, willing to push on, but his body refused to cooperate. Instead, he fell panting next to the gasping demon.  
  
"Wh...wh....what....are you?" He managed to gasp. "Wha...kind...demon...gods, my lungs."  
  
Niklaus was in no better shape. "P...p...part...," he had to take a few minutes, "part demon....not fully...."  
  
After many minutes of gasping and panting, Niklaus managed to relate his story to Ulfgar. Ulfgar, after recovering himself, took in as much of the story as he could, interrupting to clarify certain points.  
  
"So," he started cautiously, "due to your weapons, you and the demon...Sasha...merged your souls."  
  
"Well, we're not sure if it was due to the enchantments of our weapons, but essentially yes."  
  
"Oh."  
  
They sat that way for a while. Niklaus had to ask.  
  
"How did you discern that I was different?"  
  
Ulfgar looked at him levely. "A paladin having sex? I could sooner see Diablo in a monk's habit."  
  
Sasha found that uproariously funny, and began cackling in Niklaus' head. A slow grin spread on Niklaus' face, and he joined Sasha. Ulfgar, who hadn't thought it nearly that funny, looked at them oddly. When they finished laughing, they regarded Ulfgar.  
  
"Guess you hadn't heard yet," Niklaus stated. "That band of skeletons you found me with were Champions, and they don't travel in numbers that large. They're born to lead, and thus usually lead in a triumvirate over a unit of more normal demons and undead. They were marching somewhere, and I think it was into Rogue territory. Something's happening."  
  
"Why do you say that?"  
  
"The demon that led them is more suited to desert climates, and the Rogue Pass is the only way to reach the Aranoch."  
  
"And you are familiarized with demons well enough to know their preferred climes?"  
  
"As much, it seems, as you are able to understand the language of Mephisto's chosen," Niklaus countered.  
  
"I wonder, however, if it is your knowledge, or the demon's."  
  
"It's Sasha's," Niklaus acceded.  
  
"And you believe her?"  
  
"You sound much like I did six months ago. Yes, I trust her with my life. She and I are so inextricably tied, were tied even from the start, that we cannot hide anything from each other. Our very minds are laid bare to each other. We tried to use that to our advantage when we first found ourselves in our situation, but any plot is instantly known. And over the months, we've adapted."  
  
"So what do you plan to do?"  
  
"Find out why the demons are being drawn across the desert and destroy that reason."  
  
"And why should a demon want to thwart demonic plans?"  
  
This went on for several hours. In the end, it was Niklaus' character that won Ulfgar over rather than Sasha's.  
  
Before long, they found themselves back in the bar, this time seriously getting drunk. As Ulfgar put it, it's important to forget everything about a quest before going out and doing it.  
  
Sasha wrote it off as some human thing. 


	6. Gyro not Hero

Greetings everyone!  
  
First off, I've got two chapters up at once (it took a while, 'cos I'm actually starting to take the storyline part seriously, and it took me a while to figure out why everyone would be gunning for bad guys). It's a little more serious, but that's just to set up the storyline. Anyway, it's here finally!  
  
Okay, another character is introduced (Sarah), but again, while Blizzard owns the character class, I own this actual character. And stuff.  
  
'Cos I wrote her.  
  
----------  
  
Niklaus and Ulfgar were busy amidst their research. It had been two days and they were preparing for the long and arduous journey into middle Westmarch.   
  
In all honesty, it shouldn't have been long and arduous, but considering they would have to travel on foot and not in the relative comfort of a caravan, it was going to be somewhat lengthy.  
  
Hence, they plunged themselves in almost manic research, trying to find the way, if it existed, to determine how exactly a simple traveller went about making a hero, the famed meal that had now earned it's way into the heart of Paladin and northman alike.  
  
Over the course of their research, they had determined the best ingredients, and were now working on creating a potential list of substitutes, albeit inferior.  
  
Niklaus found he actually had a better grasp of the mechanics of the perfect hero. The life of a Paladin at Zakarum's Crag meant that one had to scrape together a decent meal from what was not necessarily the best of environs for cultivating the necessary herbs and spices the livened up an ordinarily boring meal.  
  
Hence, while Niklaus himself may have brought fame for his monastery in the Competitions, his monastery brought Zakarum fame for producing the best culinary wizards along the Southern Mountains.  
  
As an interesting side note on the history of Zakarum during the Conversion period, it was not so much the legendary fighting prowess that won over the Western lands so much as the annual Zakarum cook-offs that were often cause for celebration. Many courts promised large donations to the Church of Zakarum to host these events.  
  
Therefore Niklaus, while he may not have been the best chef, found himself far above Ulfgar's culinary abilities.  
  
In fact, there had been some fear on the part of the tavern owner that Niklaus' ability would surpass his own and he would open a tavern that would bankrupt the Night's Stable (the tavern of the nervous proprietor).  
  
However, Niklaus maintained a few of his oaths as a Paladin, and strangely enough, monks of Zakarum's Crag were oathed to not cheat someone else out of their trade.  
  
Finally, after ensuring a successful recipe, Ulfgar and Niklaus made ready to depart for the Rogue monastery.  
  
They made fantastic time, it seemed, having only travelled approximately thirty minutes before encountering their first Rogue.  
  
That she was running on foot, hotly pursued by several...somethings...was somewhat odd, though, especially since the Sisters were ruthless archers and it was rare that anything ever got close enough to force one into retreat.  
  
However, considering that there were about twenty of the shortest things Niklaus had ever seen, and were eating ground so quickly that the rogue likely didn't have enough time to draw her bow, it was small wonder.  
  
Ulfgar and Niklaus drew their weapons, and Sasha ignited the Aura of Lightning. Through Niklaus, Sasha *reached* and grasped the weapon, and electricity arced down the blade once more as she extended her awareness towards the rushing horde.  
  
While fighting with Ulfgar, Sasha had found she could sense her foes, and having ignited this Aura, she could strike them without harm to her comrades.  
  
The attackers shortly found this out as the sharp electrostatic shock shorted their grey matter.  
  
Favoring a less savory approach, Niklaus made use of the lightning arcing through Silence to step in and cleave the tiny men that confronted them.  
  
The Rogue dashed past, heedless to her saviors.  
  
Meanwhile, Ulfgar held his massive axe against his leg as he flung a virtual hailstorm of knives into the mass. After the little demons came too close, he took up his great axe and swung low, cleaving the little demons four at a time.  
  
Niklaus spun, dispatching another three, but missed the fourth that was sneaking up on his back.  
  
An arrow caught that one, and it found itself airborne for several feet, before expiring messily, it's face caved in from the sheer impact of the arrow.  
  
After ensuring all the demons were dead, Niklaus and Ulfgar turned to regard the archer behind them. She had already knocked another arrow, but held it loosely, point down. She regarded the two men cooly.  
  
On the left, a swordsman in light plate with a crackling sword, the green and white marking him as a Paladin. However, she allowed herself to admire the play of his shoulders, and the red hair pulled back in a simple ponytail.  
  
She was still alive, after all.  
  
As for the axe-man...gods was he huge! All eight feet of him! And that axe!  
  
The larger man in question smirked as the Rogue's eyes widened to take him in.  
  
"So what brings you here?" the smaller man asked.  
  
---------  
  
They had returned to the village and set up back at the same tavern they had occupied less than a few hours earlier.  
  
"And what were those things again?"  
  
"I don't know, but the dark man who besieged the Monastery called them rat men. I wasn't really sure if that was a derogatory term or not."  
  
"I see. And this dark man slew Andariel?"  
  
"Him and two others. I don't know their names, but there were three of them: a knight of the Zakarum's Hand, a necromancer, and a Druid."  
  
Ulfgar bristled everytime the Rogue mentioned the druid, but kept didn't say anything. He would query his friend later.  
  
In all honesty, Niklaus was in shock. Andariel was a Lesser Evil, one of four that served the triumvirate of Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo. She had opposed the Three in Hell's Civil War, and the Lesser Evils had finally succeeded in expelling the Three into Sanctuary.   
  
This rogue-Sarah-had accompanied the three heroes as a mercenary for the Sisterhood but they shortly dispatched her to seek the aid of the High Council.  
  
"But the council is in Kurast, and the quickest route is through the Pass by the monastery."  
  
"Yes, but the High council had sent it's emissaries to Philios to attempt to convert the Amazonian people."  
  
"Every year, and are repelled forcefully every year," Niklaus added, familiar now.  
  
"That aside, the emissaries always take stop at the port of Kalladen before heading towards Philios. I had hoped to intercept them there.  
  
"I met them all right. The bastards set their archers against me, and then those damn rat men. I gave them the slip for a while, but they finally tracked me down as I ran into this village. That's when you found me."  
  
Niklaus' brow furrowed. Without a word, he left Ulfgar and Sarah and stalked into the evening.  
  
-----------  
  
"Nik, what the hell is going on?"  
  
Sasha received a furious silence. Whereas one time she might have cajoled Niklaus gently into explaining his state, she had no time or patience right now.  
  
"Goddammit Nik, don't give me this crap! I will not spend the rest of your life getting carted around hill and dale just because you have a bug up your ass. So what the hell is wrong?"  
  
"I put that council in charge of Zakarum!" Niklaus exploded all at once.  
  
"...Huh?" Sasha cleverly rebutted.  
  
"The High Council whose emissaries sent demons after another human was put in power by myself and my father to supplant the last High Council."  
  
"Why supplant the High Council?"  
  
"The last one instituted the Crusade against the Three that was more bloodbath than struggle against Evil. They created the new "Hand of Zakarum" out of the Paladin order and sent them on an inquisition. That Council decreed that any who would not convert to Zakarum was in league with the Three, and was to be put to death.  
  
"A few of us took offense to that, and felt that the Council had forgotten its purpose: to safeguard the Light on Sanctuary.  
  
"We staged a coup, and it was a bloody one. In the end we did instate a new High Council, but my father and I felt that to turn on our own Council was still heresy, and thus we went into exile at Zakarum's Crag. We hoped the monastery would provide us sanctuary from the violence we caused."  
  
"...And the million coin question would be: so?"  
  
"The new council has employed those creatures as servants, it seems. Despite our best efforts, corruption has worked its way back into the High Council. The same damn Council I instituted!" Niklaus slammed his fist into a nearby wall. The wall, rather unassumingly, didn't buckle, and thus Niklaus found himself with a sore hand.  
  
While Niklaus massaged his hand, Sasha replied.  
  
"Y'know, whenever you hit something, I feel it too, and while you may have a high pain tolerance, I kinda don't."  
  
Niklaus mumbled an curt apology as Sasha went on.  
  
"Hells, small wonder, considering what they've got locked up in there. It's only the damn Lord of Hatred himself, and he's probably been working his mojo on every council that has guarded him."  
  
Niklaus knew the High Council had long been charged with preventing Mephisto from escaping his Soulstone, but it felt as if Mephisto had played them all for fools.  
  
The thought peeved Niklaus slightly.  
  
Actually, he shook just a bit uncontrollably. Sasha wondered if she should light an Aura, but didn't know which one.  
  
Suddenly, Niklaus sprang forward and punched the same wall again, but this time created a series of cracks and fissures ending in a noticeable crater in the wall.  
  
Niklaus' hand came out the worse for it, however, and Sasha bit her lip to keep from crying out as she hastily ignited a healing Aura.  
  
"Goddammit Nik! Cut that crap out!" Sasha reprimanded him. "You think you're the only one to not be pissed off right now?  
  
"Lemme tell you something: when the Three were cast out of Hell, most of their supporters went with them, including me. We waged the Sin War with maybe a quarter of Hell's strength behind us, and I'll be more damned if we didn't do a good job of it.  
  
"But y'know what? It doesn't mean shit right now, with Andariel dead at the Rogue Monastery."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Andariel won't just crawl out of Hell to tour the countryside. She was summoned there, likely due to whatever had those skeletons marching north. I'm betting two wenches at once that it was this Dark Wanderer everyone's staining their pants over.  
  
"If Andariel was kicking back snacking on archers-in Sanctuary, mind-it means that the Three were never really kicked out, that they staged the whole thing."  
  
Sasha's voice turned cold. "And I followed the Three into exile and waged the Sin War with the best of them. And now it seems that the whole civil war was staged from the start."  
  
If possible, the tone of Sasha's voice turned even colder, and the telltale wisps of the Aura of Frost passed over their surroundings, causing ice to form in the warm weather. "Those bastards played me for a fool," she began, plunging the surroundings even further into winter about the possessed Paladin, "Those bastards used me, but were I the one in control, I wouldn't have wasted my time and energy knocking a hole in the wall."  
  
Niklaus realized that her own betrayal ran as deep as his, and from of the same source.  
  
He also realized the depth to which her demonic heritage ran. In a moment, he beheld the image of a demon in it's full fury, her wings unfurled and energy crackling around her fingertips as her sheer gaze crippled everything she cast it on.  
  
The cold, calculating gaze of an enraged Siren beheld her surroundings, and finally settled to regard on Niklaus himself.  
  
Earlier in their relationship, Niklaus might have had a pang of fear (well, concern, as Paladin are trained never to fear of course) but now he welcomed the gaze and embraced his inner demon with equal fury.  
  
For a while the two regarded each other, fire and ice.  
  
Tangentially, the Northmen believe that the world was created when fire and ice met and created the foundations of matter. At this moment, something indeed sprang out of a similar merger.  
  
Whereas before, they had still maintained a distance, they were now united under a cold, implacable purpose. With perfect understanding of the other, Sasha ignited a healing Aura to heal Niklaus' hurt hand.  
  
As the soothing Aura worked upon Niklaus' hand and head, he felt someone creep up behind him. Spinning, he found himself face-to-face with the Rogue he had helped rescue earlier.  
  
"I remember you. Or, at least your reputation," she stated simply.  
  
"I get that a lot," he replied, a new light in his eyes.  
  
"If I'm intruding, I can leave," the Rogue returned, still speaking with her implacably cool voice, "I'd like to make an offer, but it looks like you have a lot on your mind."  
  
"Yeah, we both do," Sasha interjected darkly. It was true, Niklaus thought, Hell really doesn't have anything on a woman scorned.  
  
"Couldn't imagine why, though," the Rogue went on, "what with the exalted Council you helped to install just releasing its little-literally-band of psycho cutthroats on an emissary asking for help, I'd say you do have a lot to ponder."  
  
Niklaus looked up sharply at her words. Rub it in, he thought sharply.  
  
Dammit, it's not like he had enough on his mind.  
  
"Wow," Sasha interjected again as she warmed herself up, "you are famous. Now why didn't you tell me I was roaming with a celebrity? My sisters will think I'm some kind of groupie! Oh, the disgrace!" she feigned shocked humiliation, finding humor to bring her out of her dark state.  
  
"Those demons are usually a lot smarter than that, you realize," Sarah was saying, "usually they try to lure you into a trap, and then swarm you. I think it was different back there because they were too caught up in the chase. Usually you need something to throw at them to bring them down in sufficient numbers.  
  
"Now I've got my bow, and your friend has enough knives to make a full set of plate, but where do you stand?"  
  
"And why would I need to take precautions against those demons?"  
  
"Well, Council Slayer, it seems that your services are required again, and since I've heard those demons comprise a large part of the new Council's defenses, you'll need a way to bring them down.  
  
"As an interesting aside, I trained the core of the Rangers, and I'm sure I can work with someone as prestigious as you."  
  
Niklaus' eyes widened at this. The Rangers were a special order of Paladin, trained in the use of bows. They were legendary, largely because they received their training from the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, who typically shunned men.  
  
Niklaus now recognized the archer before him. She had been a premier teacher, having produced several of the most lethal archers Zakarum had ever employed, many of which had sided with the coup.  
  
"Well!" Ulfgar boomed, joining the impending party outside out of nowhere, "it seems that we have a long mission ahead of us. Shall we off to battle and slay a few sacred cows?"  
  
"Sounds fun Nik," Sasha said with even more cruel glee. "And you're right about a woman scorned."  
  
"If we head south to Kalladen, I can get you a helluva bow," Sarah said to Niklaus, "won't even charge you that much."  
  
Cruel grins snaked their way across the warriors' features. 


	7. Sarah

There were no goodbyes, there were no adieus, and there were no farewells.  
  
Everyone was just a little too peeved at the world to do so.  
  
For his part, Niklaus wanted to eliminate the new High Council; he had put his hopes into the likes of Khalim and Maffer Dragonhand, and they had betrayed him, his father, and everyone who had fought for their cause.  
  
Sasha wanted to eliminate Mephisto: it was at his behest that she fought in Hell's Civil War, and had been exiled to Sanctuary along with the Prime Evils. Andariel's appearance meant that she had sided with the Three again, exposing a ploy in which Sasha had merely played a part.  
  
Sarah wanted a clear shot of the Council's emissaries who had sent those midget demons at her. If that meant she might end up taking potshots at the High Council, so much the better: she herself had been in support of the new council.  
  
Ulfgar seemed universally not upset at anything; despite everything, even in the middle of pitched battle, he seemed at ease, and usually had a bawdy joke in reserve for the most inopportune moments.  
  
Usually these bawdy jokes came in the middle of pitched battle (a rather inopportune moment, one might add), when one had to resist the temptation to groan in pain so that their opponents would not get a lucky shot in.  
  
In truth, however, only Niklaus had to resist the urge to groan. Sarah, their Rogue companion, never seemed to smile, but only favored them with cool professionalism or at most dry sarcasm. During the near-constant conflicts in the wood, she only became increasingly cooler, drawing and releasing arrow after arrow into the foes that attacked them.  
  
Niklaus had to appreciate the Rogue's skill with her bow. She was able to send arrows with frightening accuracy, passing them over Niklaus' shoulder to startle an enemy into blocking, opening him up for Niklaus to slip in a fatal thrust.  
  
Although he appreciated the distraction to his foes, the constant stream of arrows whizzing by his ear was more than slightly disconcerting.  
  
Coupled with the fact that Sarah wore a cloak with a long hood that she always pulled down *over her eyes* before shooting, Niklaus found his heart beat rise just a little more than absolutely necessary.  
  
Yet her arrows went unerringly into their foes and not into her comrades, and Niklaus, however rattled, was beginning to accommodate the constant whiz of arrows around his him.  
  
Something that all three noticed was the increase of aggressive animals in the wilds. While things like rabies were not unknown, a quill rat (usually coming up to mid-shin) that came up past the knee and sported two foot long quills and attacked as if possessed was somewhat unusual.  
  
Add a propensity for forcibly expelling said quills towards...anyone...and it was enough to make them take a perturbed notice.  
  
As if that were not enough, the landscape itself seemed to change, grow darker and more sinister. Night fell menacingly, and daylight seemed to fear the shadows it created.  
  
As if to remedy its newfound phobia, the sun began hiding behind clouds, casting the land in perpetual grey tones.  
  
Ulfgar constantly sniffed the air these days, and Sarah began retreating within the folds of her hood more often, and was rarely without a nocked arrow.  
  
On the way to Kalladan, Sarah began instructing Niklaus on the ways of the bow and the finer points of its use. She taught in hushed, hurried tones, as if afraid of being overheard.  
  
Niklaus had felt the same sense of dread creeping into the land that had forced Sarah under her hood, but expected practical, hands-on teaching. On the contrary, his education involved extended periods of sitting on his behind listening to bullfrogs croak and a stream trickle over pebbles. While Sarah whispered seeming nonsense into his ears.  
  
It was maddening.  
  
With his eyes closed, Niklaus could hear much better, but with the approaching darkness, he was fairly confident that he much preferred seeing his surroundings and telling definitively what was around him. Instead, with his eyes closed, he found himself imagining what was around him, and found these fantasies much more disturbing than reality.  
  
Sarah never told him what the purpose of this exercise was, and so he was left to sitting in various weather (usually cloudy, but increasingly rainy days) feeling his sore behind, wet head, and growing agitation.  
  
It was the priests and monks who sat in true meditation, learning the mental discipline necessary to summon forth raw holy energy and vanquish foes without the use of a sword.  
  
Paladin, by contrast, prayed to Heaven to bless them and that was about it; hence, meditation was really only a means to an end.  
  
Thus Niklaus was only mentally disciplined enough to get from one undead to the next, and it required the kind of discipline brought on through physical exertion.  
  
Right now, the only thing exerting anything was his butt so that it wouldn't fall asleep.  
  
Additionally, Sasha was completely unused to any kind of discipline, be it physical or mental, and she was rapidly developing caged animal syndrome.  
  
Or perhaps "raBidly developing caged animal syndrome" might be more appropriate. Regardless, she was less than silent at expressing her displeasure.  
  
As a result, Niklaus found himself being driven to distraction on three fronts, by Sasha's constant caginess, Sarah's constant nonsensical speeches, and his own impatience with the whole process.  
  
He had been under the distinct impression that he was learning to shoot a bow, and not learning to sit on his ass in the cold worrying about what was over his shoulder.  
  
Sarah noticed that Niklaus was having trouble concentrating. Without a word, she rose to her feet. From behind her, she drew a short rapier and aimed it at Niklaus. Bewildered, he stood and drew his own sword.  
  
"Use whatever skill you have at your disposal, and attack."  
  
"Finally!" Sasha screamed, and the Aura of the Fanatic bloomed around Niklaus as Sasha vented her frustration at the prolonged inactivity.  
  
Sarah was extraordinarily unperturbed. She merely pulled her hood down at the fury of the Aura.  
  
Niklaus slashed in, trying to pull his punches, but Sarah darted out and back in, and Niklaus found himself nicked across the stomach. Sasha screamed in rage and Niklaus tried something a little more complicated.  
  
Sarah passed through a weaving Silence as if she was fog and Niklaus sported another scratch.  
  
And another.  
  
And another.  
  
By now Niklaus stopped pulling his shots, and they strove against each other in earnest.  
  
Rather, Niklaus strove; Sarah simply ducked, wove through his attacks, and nicked him again and again.  
  
Niklaus braced and Silence twitched, yet while demonic foes may have at one time fell in scores from this strike, Niklaus slashed only air.  
  
By now Niklaus was trying every parry and counter he knew (which was rather extensive) and yet despite it all, Sarah would simply dart around him as if he were a novice and nicked him time and time again.  
  
Desperate to score a touch somehow, he launched into a full Charge, planning to pin Sarah against a tree.  
  
It was wholly fortunate that he was able to stop after the first stride, for Sarah's point placed itself in front of his Adam's apple and didn't waver.  
  
Even Sasha was stunned out of her BloodLust as Niklaus saw his reflection in the polished steel of Sarah's blade.  
  
"And what did we learn?" Sarah inquired.  
  
Niklaus responded with a well-thought-out raised eyebrow.   
  
Suspiciously, it looked very much like a stunned and baffled raised eyebrow, but with a rapier blade at his throat, if she had interpreted it as Niklaus had a painful venereal disease he would have let it slide.  
  
Interpreting (correctly) that he couldn't figure out how her blade was a hairs width from a vital body part, she stepped away and sheathed her sword.  
  
"Firing a bow is simple, all things considered. Even the Amazons on Philios can fire a bow with decent skill, although their strength requires prayers to their gods.  
  
"Paladin ignite Auras through prayers to Heaven, and even the Northmen pray to their ancestors before going into battle. Watch Ulfgar next time and see if he doesn't.  
  
"The sisterhood prays to the Sightless Eye, yes, but, importantly, all sisters have their own Eye that sees far better those squishy things in your face. That is the technique taught to the Rangers: how to see without sight.  
  
"In fact, some of our sisters will go so far as to stare at the sun to blind their eyes, so that they may open their Eye even further. It's effective, although far from required."  
  
Niklaus stared.  
  
Sasha stared.  
  
They (mentally) stared at each other for a minute.  
  
Sarah waited patiently while the staring went on, and dumbly, Niklaus sat back down. She smiled.  
  
Now he was ready.  
  
-------------  
  
The training went on as they continued their journey towards Kalladan. While Niklaus and even Sasha bent their minds to understanding how the Sightless Eye worked, they found the entire process extremely vexing.  
  
Niklaus exploded out of his sitting place once again. He simply couldn't get it!  
  
Sarah sighed. Her student was earnest, it couldn't be denied, and even showed a slowly emerging Eye.  
  
However, she had marked faster progress from a corpse in rigor mortis. For some reason, he just wasn't getting it.  
  
All of the Rangers who had come to her had been impatient, as this one was, convinced of their own superiority. The sparring match had proven just as effective then as now.  
  
But while her other students had achieved success, he just wasn't getting it.  
  
Sarah blew an irritated sigh, and determined that another approach should suffice.  
  
Namely, she and Ulfgar would hunt him.  
  
As in try to kill him.  
  
And he couldn't ignite any Auras, for Sarah feared that to do so would attract the attention of any neighboring demons.  
  
Sasha found that ironically funny.  
  
And so Niklaus found himself alone, armed only with Silence, in a strange countryside, with demons afoot, one friend and one teacher hunting him specifically.  
  
"Joy," Sasha said as unjoyfully as possible.  
  
They stood in silence, listening intently to the forest.  
  
"Well, at least if we're going to die, you probably won't have to worry about your soul," Sasha said cheerlessly.  
  
Niklaus started coldly at that. He was responsible to Sasha on that count, and couldn't just let her die.  
  
With nothing better to do, Niklaus sat back down and tried to meditate. He was to the point where he could sit and not get a sore butt anymore, for all the good it did him.  
  
It would make a good epitaph: He could sit on his ass for hours. Too bad the demons wiping him off their feet didn't care.  
  
That might have been too long for an epitaph, though. Maybe: Look! I can sit! *Squish.*  
  
Niklaus cleared his head. Thinking like that sure wouldn't help much.  
  
"'Cos sitting around with a blank expression is so much more productive," Sasha interjected.  
  
She wasn't helping much either, for that matter.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry, but this shit bores the Hells out of me. And that's saying something! Why don't we get off our ass and hunt the hunters? It'd sure spice up the game a little."  
  
"The purpose of the exercise is to survive what would be a sneak attack."  
  
"But you know they're coming!"  
  
"It's a good idea to assume that you're always subject to attack."  
  
"If you're always subject to an attack, go out and blast the shit out of the attacker!"  
  
"That would be messy. And unhygenic."  
  
"'Never stopped me."  
  
Tuning Sasha out, Niklaus fell into a meditative trance. Honestly, he could sympathize with Sasha; he didn't like the idea of being hunted by his own companions.  
  
However, he felt that if he was going up against the High Council, he would need every ability he could muster, and if Sarah could teach him about the Sightless Eye, so much the better.  
  
As before, he reflected on the things that Sarah had said to him. A lot of it hadn't made sense; every once in a while, however, something would come out that would be familiar.  
  
At one point she had mentioned the rhythm of combat, and likened it to a dance. Niklaus was familiar with the simile, but had found that in battle, dancing was slightly out of place; there was only room for hacking and chopping.  
  
Dancing was usually reserved for one-on-one combat, and a soldier rarely went one-on-one.  
  
Nevertheless, he meditated on Sarah's seemingly nonsense rambles. As he recalled Sarah's voice, it lulled him further into a trance; his senses simultaneously dulled and sharpened to his surroundings. He heard the forest around him, with the various hoots and snuffles of its inhabitants as they went about their daily lives.  
  
He heard other things as well: in the distance, he heard the distant wail of something sinister, something not of Sanctuary.  
  
Or worse, something that had once been of this world, twisted beyond recognition by the unnamed dread they all felt.  
  
Fortunately, nothing happened for a while except for the occasional breeze that blowed through the clearing. He heard the wind brush by the trees, rustle the leaves and pass by Sarahs' booted calf.  
  
Wait just a damn minute! Sarah's booted calf?! Yes, it was Sarah's, he could see the red leather that marked her as a Sister.  
  
With closed eyes?!  
  
In that moment, Niklaus engaged in the greatest fight in his life: to keep his eyes closed.  
  
Somehow, he knew that Ulfgar was poised behind him. He knew that Ulfgar had concealed himself and Niklaus couldn't have spotted him. Ulfgar had two knives pulled, holding them in one hand. He knew that Ulfgar could throw both knives accurately, and that Ulfgar had aimed for him.  
  
Sarah moved.  
  
Ulfgar winced, then moved.  
  
Niklaus didn't move. Something told him to not move, to stay put, even though certain death bore down on him.  
  
Something within.  
  
It wasn't Sasha, though: she was screaming at him to get his shiny ass out of the way.  
  
He heard the clang of intercepting objects, and knew that it was a knife and an arrow intersecting neatly and flying safely away.  
  
In fact, the arrow and the knife met a handbreadth behind Niklaus' ear, and the missiles went their separate ways, missing Niklaus entirely.  
  
Then Niklaus moved.  
  
Silence flashed in the stillness as Niklaus drove into the brush ahead of him. Niklaus felt Silence stab through flesh, and the quill rat that was stalking him twitched spasmodically in its death throes.  
  
Sarah and Ulfgar stepped out of concealment as Niklaus cleaned the blade and presented their next meal.  
  
"You just died," Sarah stated, as cool as ever.  
  
"You just missed," Niklaus replied.  
  
"Oh? And how did you discern that?" Sarah inquired even cooler.  
  
"I saw you aim away."  
  
Sarah and Niklaus regarded each other coolly for a minute before Sarah nodded in cool approval.  
  
"For just a moment, your Eye opened. Now let's work on getting it to stay open, shall we?"  
  
After that, the lessons came easier. Niklaus found himself able to fend off Sarah and Ulfgar at the same time, without anyone pulling their punches. The three of them began training in earnest, readying themselves for the fight they knew was coming.  
  
-----------------  
  
A month later, a roving band of thieves made their arrogant way across the port of Kalladan. Few dared to cross their path, as they were responsible for a fair share of murders, never leaving enough evidence for the authorities to lay the blame on them.  
  
They had spent the better part of the night pulling aside drunken travellers who made their bleary way from tavern to inn, and had made a rather profitable night.  
  
They were about to turn in for the night when they saw the perfect hit: a lone man (wealthy too, for the sword they saw protruding from his cape) and a deep hood. The man staggered down a dark alley, leaning heavily on a walking stick as he tried to navigate the alcoholic fog.  
  
Apparantly, the fog was thicker than a stew.  
  
With a collective grin, the thieves made their way towards the staggering sod.  
  
The two strongest made their way directly behind the drunk and prepared to strike him down with their clubs.  
  
They were promptly struck down with their clubs.  
  
Niklaus smiled confidently, and closed his eyes to ~see~ the thugs bear down on him.  
  
He felt them approach, heard their footsteps appear. They are almost close enough...  
  
The swordsman reeled as a giant fist slammed into his face, knocking him back and stunning him.  
  
Quickly, Sasha lit the Aura of Frost and the thugs found themselves suffering from a sudden case of midsummer's hypothermia, a very rare and confusing condition.  
  
Three went down from severe frostbite and the rest of the thieves decided to cut their losses and run.  
  
Ulfgar and Sarah stepped out of the shadows to evaluate his work. Ulfgar looked visibly impressed with Sasha's Aura.  
  
Sarah was less so.  
  
"You're getting better, but your previous training is interfering with your Eye," she said critically, "you're still having trouble using it successfully. Obviously."  
  
Niklaus looked downcast. Sarah grabbed his chin and forced his eyes upwards.  
  
"Look at it this way, you're progressing."  
  
The three of them vanished into a genuine fog to seek an inn for the evening before making their way to Lut Gholein. 


	8. Duane of Skelgard

Duane of Skelgard tossed back his drink with gusto. He slammed the empty mug onto the counter with a heavily armored fist and arrogantly asked for more. With a chagrined look (the counter was splintering under Duane of Skelgard's enthusiasm for his beverage), the tavern owner got down yet another bottle and poured the contents into the empty mug. While Duane of Skelgard's money was good, his manners weren't and the tavern was emptying out.  
  
For the third time that afternoon.  
  
While the entire city was thankful to Duane of Skelgard for slaying the undead Revenant in the sewers below, they were leery of attracting his attention. His (claimed) signs of affection towards anything human had left several with massive contusions and even a few fractured bones.  
  
His compatriots were much more reserved, not given over to such displays.  
  
Said compatriots were sitting over at a table away from the evaporating crowd. Each heralded from the two most reviled, discredited, and shunned orders in Sanctuary. One was a grizzled veteran of many battles, as the scars visible on his face attested. He wore pelts from several animals, some never even heard of in this part of the world, not to mention the wolf pelt in particular that several people swore had moved upon his shoulder. Yet for all his taste in animal hides and that his demeanor screamed of some kind of warrior, the city had yet to see him produce any weapons of any kind.  
  
Many people had heard of the cult of the Wolf, but few had survived actual contact with its members to ever provide a decent picture of one.  
  
The other was slender, dressed in black, and pale as though he had spent the better part of his life indoors.   
  
Or, more accurately, underground.  
  
Everything about him spoke of some kind of nobility; the fine gloves he wore were expensive silk, and his open jacket was richly embroidered with silver thread.  
  
The nicest thing anyone had ever said of him was "he was a creepy bastard" which he resented: his parents were lawfully married (to each other, even!) well before he was born.  
  
However, he was creepy. Anyone who spent a large amount of their life summoning spirits out of the ether and binding them to the mortal remains of his foes to wreak further death upon the agents of Hell was creepy. Anyone who could see into and manipulate the fates of all around him to bring them to their doom was creepy.  
  
He found that the term "creepy" fit.  
  
Hence many people avoided the two at the table, leaving them in relative peace while the watched the antics of their...traveling companion.  
  
Math looked over to his pale counterpart. "Why is it again that we follow him?"  
  
Simon looked at the burly Druid. "Simple. We follow him so he is the first one to be hit."  
  
The furred man considered that fact. Nodding, he remembered that that very tactic had allowed them to slay Radamant in the sewers beneath the town. Resignedly, he looked askance at the Necromancer.  
  
Simon considered the Paladin himself. Although his worth in battle was notable, his manners in every other regard occasionally tempted the Necromancer to bend Trang-Oul's spine just a little....  
  
But no. As a priest of Rathma's teachings, he could not so flippantly bring someone to death before his time. To do so was inexcusable, even in the face of such an arrogant one as Duane of Skelgard.  
  
For his part Duane had wasted no time in announcing his distaste of Simon when they first met; in the ruins of the Bloody Countess, in fact. While Simon had sought the destruction of the Countess, same as the Paladin, he had also sought to study her notes on immortality. The Paladin had threatened to kill Simon for even pondering the Countess' nature and wishing to learn from it.  
  
Even though Simon eventually read the Countess' journal in relative peace, they turned out to be nothing more than a mad mind hard at work destroying itself. Simon had suspected as much, but to lose even a potential source of learning for his priesthood....  
  
Math had his own bone to pick with the Paladin, so to speak. The Cult of the Wolf has the ability to work themselves into a frenzy, allowing their spirit guides to manifest through them. Hence, the legend of werewolves had been borne forth. The first time Duane had seen Math shapeshift into the Werewolf, he had been hard-pressed not to kill the Druid. Convinced Math was a monster finally revealing his true form, Simon had intervened and cursed Duane to keep him from killing his "demon from the wood." After Simon convinced Duane that Math was no such demon, Duane announced that true warriors had no need to assume the nature of primitive beasts. Math had bristled at "primitive," and the two had been at odds ever since.  
  
However, Simon and Math had found each other affable, and found a lot of common ground. As a result, Math and Simon had formed a friendship, partly out of mutual respect, partly to convince each other not to kill their earnest ally. While he was intolerable in nearly every social aspect, in combat Duane of Skelgard acted selflessly and often forsook his own safety for the safety of his allies.  
  
The scene remained relatively unchanged for several hours, much to the chagrin of the two other patrons within earshot of Duane of Skelgard. After a while, Simon and Math had tuned out the boisterous shiny man and fell to daydreaming about anything but the present and Duane of Skelgard.  
  
After a while Math's ear twitched. Looking over to the open window, he sniffed and scented three newcomers into town. They had not eaten the local food, and thus sweat differently in the desert climate. Two men and a woman...one of the men huge in stature...probably a damn northmen...Math sighed. He had no desire to associate with those whose ancestors had banished his so long ago.  
  
After a while, the woman wandered farther off. Probably to find something soft to lay on, Math snorted to himself. Women; utterly useless in a fight.  
  
The two men walked into the tavern and made their way to the bar.  
  
Math looked over to his companion and noticed that Simon was glaring at the newcomers. Math leaned in closer so his friend could whisper.  
  
"My wraiths tell me the smaller man is demonic," Simon whispered. Math nodded silently, and three great direwolves melted out of the shadows. Simon took out a wickedly-curving dagger and whispered something over it. It flashed venemously and Simon nodded approvingly at the blade.  
  
Both Druid and Necromancer didn't tell the Paladin, who was busy boring the tavernkeeper. Not out of a sense of malice (as they would swear repeatedly afterwards), but rather feeling an ignorant prey was more convincing than a forewarned target. A demon would instantly attack a Paladin; they were so diametrically opposite, an instantaneous clash was inevitable. Duane would be more than capable of disposing a demon like this, even one so cleverly disguised.  
  
The demon and the human mountain came in and made for the bar. Ordering drinks, they fell into intense discussion.  
  
Right next to Duane of Skelgard.  
  
Duane, for his part, looked at the two newcomers before beginning to regale the barkeeper of some other woefully boring tale. He stopped, his mouth still open. Math and Simon waited, tensing. The wolves moved silently closer, ready to pounce one of the newcomers.  
  
Duane looked around, much like someone who had caught the scent of something unpleasant, but familiar. After a confused moment, he looked towards the newcomers sitting next to him. A look of shocked recognition passed over his face. Math got up and moved towards the bar, assuming a loping lupine pace rather than a human stride.  
  
Duane tapped the smaller man over the shoulder. Hard. The smaller man looked up irritated.  
  
"Excuse me, but I can't help but notice when another of my order comes in. What say you? Have we met before?" Duane of Skelgard announced.  
  
"I don't believe so."  
  
Duane was rather put off. "Come now," he announced, "surely we have. Wait, I recognize you now! You were the champion of the Tourney held several summers past. Tell me I'm wrong!"  
  
"You're not mistaken, but that was long ago, and I am not the warrior I was."  
  
"Surely not! A Warrior of the Light such as yourself never fades in a few years. Only advanced age or mortality would could stop a Hand of the Zakarum!"  
  
Niklaus sighed. Had he ever been so loud?   
  
"Are you kidding?" Sasha confirmed, "you were at least twice as arrogant. Although I think he's got you beat on volume."  
  
Ah well, Niklaus thought, how the mighty have Fallen. That earned a dirty smirk from Sasha.  
  
Turning to the Paladin, he stared the larger man in the eyes. "I left my monastery on a pilgrimmage for enlightenment."  
  
"What more enlightenment could a Warrior..." Duane let his announcement trail off. Looking into the smaller man's eyes, he saw something....  
  
Demonic.  
  
In a flash, Duane's sword was up and knocking Silence away. Ulfgar tried to unlimber his axe, but found himself surrounded by three huge wolves, all looking more than eager to tear him open. His hands moved away from his axe, and raised in a sign of surrender.  
  
Niklaus and Sasha's minds were racing.  
  
Paladin, Druid. Another one somewhere.  
  
There! A Necromancer.  
  
I see him.  
  
Druid possible shapeshifter.  
  
Yes. Direwolves on Ulfgar.  
  
Druid and Necromancer usin' the Paladin as demon-bait.  
  
Cunning.  
  
Yeah. We need to deal with this one's sword.  
  
He's got a short sword at his back.  
  
Yes. We need something to hit them all at once, throw them off.  
  
We can shock 'em.  
  
Do it.  
  
The bartender had watched the entire drama unfold, now felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Then everyone save Ulfgar and Niklaus saw a kaleidoscope of colors as they were electrocuted by Sasha's presence. Although not hurt seriously, it gave Niklaus and Ulfgar the necessary split second they needed to spring into action. Ulfgar leapt over the wolves to land astride a very surprised Werewolf; a quick blow rendered him unconscious. Without their master, the direwolves had no focal point with which to manifest, and disappeared back into the ether amidst a wisp of fog.  
  
Niklaus used the chance to knock aside the other paladin's blade and backfist him, sending him sprawling into the barstools.   
  
Simon, seeing the change in situation, held his knife aloft, ready to throw it at the huge northman. Niklaus saw him and a chair seemingly lifted itself out of nowhere to intercept the knife midair. Both went flying away from combat, and Simon flashed Niklaus a malicious look.  
  
Sasha stuck her tongue out at Simon, who wouldn't have been able to see her anyway. But it felt good.  
  
Ulfgar decided for a switch in tactics. Looking overhead, he saw a weak spot in the joints of the ceiling. Tucking down his head, he leapt straight up and through the ceiling, leaving a gaping hole and a shower of splintered wood. Simon looked up in wonderment. So the legendary feats of the Northmen weren't so legendary. He looked down to see the demon....  
  
And was abruptly launched backwards as the demon bowled into him, sending him flying backwards. He crashed into the far wall and looked dazed as the demon barreled through the door (without opening it) and outside.  
  
Duane, by this time had regained his feet and drawn his short-sword. Taking careful aim, he threw it edge over hilt at the retreating demon, an Aura flashing briefly.  
  
Fortunately for Niklaus, Duane had miscalculated the rate of spin on his weapon. As it turned out, the pommel of the short sword hit Niklaus in the back. His armor managed to spread the area of impact, but nevertheless, the sheer impact knocking him off his feet as well. After a cursory glance at Simon, he gave a worried look to Math, still unconscious on the floor.  
  
"Don't just stand there! Go after him!" Simon screamed.  
  
Needing no further encouragement, Duane picked up his longsword and dashed after the demon. Simon knelt down to Math and began waking him.  
  
Niklaus still lay sprawled on the ground outside. Gods, that was a blow. No one had any right to throw like that. Sasha worked furiously, igniting a healing Aura, trying to clear Niklaus' mind and body so he could get up and defend them.  
  
Unfortunately, Duane got there first.  
  
Duane reared back, and delivered a kick that sent Niklaus flying. Sasha found herself unable to do much of anything except reel along with Niklaus as pain exploded through them. They skidded to a stop a full twenty paces from the paladin in gleaming plate.  
  
The paladin strode towards them, righteous in his divine wrath, determined to end the scourge of Hell in at least this small way. He brought forth his sword, and raised it above his head to deliver the death blow.  
  
A new Aura flared around them as a grim determination overtook them both. The sword came down, only to be met by Niklaus' bare arm.  
  
Duane, to his credit, did not allow his shock to overcome him for long. His own Aura flared, the Aura of Might. It became a true test of mettle, the paladin on the ground versus the paladin towering over him.  
  
The sword lost.  
  
It warped just slightly before stress fractures riddled the steel. Shortly thereafter, the blade shattered, and a very surprised Duane stared down at the broken hilt of his weapon.  
  
In a flash, the smaller man was upon him, striking surgically and methodically. Duane of Skelgard countered quickly, recognizing the attacks and counters as classic Zakarum sparring. He had prided himself on winning the championship boxing just last Tourney, and began to swing faster.  
  
However, Niklaus and Sasha had spent the last several weeks learning to dodge arrows from less than ten feet away. While Niklaus' Eye refused to open, both he and Sasha had adapted by honing their own sense of self-preservation to a preternatural edge.  
  
Duane was downright sluggish next to that.  
  
Which is not to say he didn't try. They started at an easy rythym, working at faster and faster speeds as each realized the other's ability. Duane of Skelgard found the time to utter a prayer, and Heaven graced him with the cool aura of Concentration. Sasha countered with the Aura of Lightning, which Duane soon matched.  
  
Niklaus and Duane moved back and forth across the street, punching and kicking, blocking and attempting holds that would cripple most men and certainly ruin the undead both labored against.  
  
However, while the electrostatic charges built up between them, they became aware of a simple fact of nature. Specifically, electricity is composed of negatively charged particles, which naturally repel. While Niklaus and Duane had sparred, they had released quite a few of these particles between them. Quite often they would discharge in a flashy light show, but after a while, there were just too many particles to disperse.  
  
As such, Niklaus and Duane found themselves approximately thirty feet from each other with their hair standing on end.  
  
Niklaus however, was not to be put off; he and Sasha had planned on it. Sasha switched Auras and the lightning that had arced everywhere changed to a fog of cold air. Icicles covered everything, including Duane of Skelgard, and Niklaus charged into him at full speed.  
  
Simon and Math ran out of the tavern just in time to see Duane become a creature of the air. Math caught the armored projectile while Simon peered into the ether to reach for the demon's web of fate.  
  
Three arrows slammed home into the ground in front of him, kicking up dust and causing Simon to lose concentration amidst a good deal of coughing. A cloaked archer stepped out of the gathered crowd, her hood pulled down over her eyes and another arrow nocked and aimed.  
  
Just then Math and Duane found themselves with knives at their throats as Ulfgar avalanched out of the crowd.  
  
Inexplicably, the three backed off of Simon, Math, and Duane of Skelgard. The demon's Aura receded and knives and arrows disappeared.  
  
"I think some introductions are in order," the demon said, "we can kill you after that if you persist." 


	9. SnakeMen

Niklaus sat on the top of Elzix's Inn in quiet contemplation. A lot of shit had happened in the last few hours, and not much of it particularly made any sense.  
  
For one, Sarah had abruptly cut off any education about the Sightless Eye. She had claimed that Niklaus's Eye was so diminished as to be unusable, and plus on hearing that her Sisters would in fact survive, she could let them train initiates.  
  
Niklaus had deflated somewhat at this, as had Sasha.  
  
"Hey, it looked like she dug you, with the "private instruction" and stuff. And she had great legs, it would have been nice."  
  
In all honesty, the only thing Niklaus had noticed about Sarah was cool professionalism and uncanny aim. Perhaps he recognized a fellow warrior, and saw that common element between them.  
  
Or perhaps he recognized the pointy arrows that Sarah kept in abundance.  
  
Either way, he hadn't particularly paid that close attention to Sarah's legs.  
  
"Oh like hell!" Sarah argued, "I wouldn't have gotten near the view I did if it hadn't been for you staring!"  
  
"Now wait! I was not staring!"  
  
"Oh? Check this out!"  
  
Niklaus saw Sasha's memories flash by and he realized somewhat guility that he had stared at Sarah's legs.  
  
"Yeah, you stared *a lot* at Sarah's legs"  
  
"Well, okay, but she has nice legs," Niklaus conceded.  
  
"Damn right! Can you imagine them wra--"  
  
"Okay, okay, I got it!" Niklaus mentally held his hands up in surrender.  
  
Sasha laughed and Niklaus turned back to his introspection.  
  
As if Sarah's cool shoulder wasn't enough, the meeting between Andariel's Slayers and his own party had gone less than perfectly.  
  
Simon still swore that while he felt the taint of otherworldliness on Niklaus, he conceded that it may be because of his Heaven-sent Auras and not necessarily because of any demonic taint.  
  
Niklaus bit his tongue.  
  
Math stayed out of it all. Niklaus felt a similarity with the furred warrior despite his comrades; they both had the sense of soldiers, not the individual warriors like Ulfgar or Sarah.  
  
However, Ulfgar and Math had some sort of deep-seated grudge, and it had been somewhat of a struggle for the two to not leap at each other's throat. Often a well placed Paladin went far to prevent another brawl.  
  
Which was not to say that Niklaus relished being in the middle of two very powerful warriors with no weapons and no real compunction to kill either one.  
  
Then there was Duane of Skelgard.  
  
Niklaus cringed at the sheer thought of Duane of Skelgard. While Niklaus's father was a Protector of the Word, Duane of Skelgard was of the younger Hand of Zakarum. To say the least, there was little love lost between the two generations of Paladin. The Protectors of the Word were sworn to protect the missionaries of the Visions of Akarat (the holy text of the Zakarum church) whereas the Hands of Zakarum were forged in the crucible of the Inquisitions, carrying out merciless attacks in the name of the Light.  
  
Conversely, the thought amused Sasha greatly.  
  
"It's ironic, isn't it, that after all these centuries, Hell never really needed to step in and wage the Sin War. You humans had everything well under Hand."  
  
Niklaus ignored the pun. "It was this sort of nonsense that the Protectors of the Word were supposed to defend against. Our martial disciplines were an extension of our faith, and were thus used to protect the missionaries.  
  
"Those Hands weren't defenders so much as Inquisitors, and 'cleansed the land of evil' with their scepters and swords. I wonder if that was when Mephisto really took hold of the councils."  
  
Sasha thought about it for a moment. "It would figure," she conceded, "Mephisto's the most powerful of the Three because he can warp people's minds so that they themselves want to commit acts of hatred against each other. It's what makes him so dangerous."  
  
Duane of Skelgard crept up to the roof of the Inn, where he found the smaller Paladin sitting regarding the sunrise. Uttering a prayer, he felt Heaven's Blessing upon him as minute details leapt into sharp focus, allowing him preternatural aim. Carefully he hefted the coconut he bore, and prepared to lob it at the head of the meditating Paladin.  
  
The coconut flew straight and true, and within an eyeblink the demonic Paladin would be no more.  
  
Yet just at the last moment, Niklaus' head jerked sideways and out of harm's way. A hand flashed upwards and grabbed the missile before it could sail over the roof's edge.  
  
"Try throwing your head, next time," the demon advised, "I'm sure it's much harder."  
  
Fuming and near a righteous rage, Duane of Skelgard stepped fully onto the roof to regard this pompous abomination.  
  
"I will have no common cause with a demon wearing a mask of holiness," Duane explained, setting the dogs below barking, "and will tolerate no demon in my presence."  
  
"Yeah! Ditto!" Sasha seconded, "down with those scum-sucking...oh wait," she finished before cackling at the other man's presumption.  
  
Niklaus smiled at the joke.  
  
"I'll be sure to tell warn any demons looking to join your merry band," Niklaus solemnly swore. To Sasha, "Duane of Skelgard says he will tolerate no demon in his presence."  
  
"Well, if he's so adamant, he can tell it to my face. I think we left it somewhere in the Eintsteig, along with the rest of my body."  
  
Niklaus couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing.  
  
"So now you mock me to my face?" Duane queried, growing slightly hoarse.  
  
"No," Niklaus replied evenly, "I mock you to your ass, since it's all you show me." And with that, he walked smoothly past a sputtering Duane of Skelgard.  
  
~~~  
  
Niklaus met Ulfgar and Sarah downstairs in earnest discussion with Simon and an elderly sage in a grey robe. The four of them were poring over scrolls. Math, however, was in the next room hard at work keeping his wolfpack in peak physical condition.  
  
This closely resembled a huge multi-form hairball with a plethora of lolling tongues, perked ears, and the occasional bark of laughter from the furclad warrior.  
  
Truly Math was the consummate warrior, obsessed with nothing more than the ultimate destruction of his foes. Still, it looked like a helluva lot of fun.  
  
Fortunately, it seemed that everyone had agreed to a truce.  
  
Little did he know everyone had joined forces to prevent each other from killing Duane of Skelgard.  
  
Niklaus was still pissed at that worthy, and he wanted to vent his frustration.  
  
"What's the job?"  
  
The old sage perked up from the table, one Niklaus did not recognize. "It appears as though the Dark Wanderer seeks to free Baal, the Lord of Destruction. Although I cannot fathom his goals--"  
  
"What's the job?"  
  
"What's the hurry?" Sarah peered up from the various tomes she pored over.  
  
"If I have to spend one more day with that Handjob of Zakarum, I will be imprisoned for murder within the city walls."  
  
Ulfgar snorted and even Sarah smiled appreciatively. Simon and Math glanced to each other in perfect understanding.  
  
"I understand he's not the...most welcome...of comrades," Simon began, "but in battle he is very valuable to us. His Auras are most welcome to Math and my servants."  
  
"Fine then, ungag him only long enough to pray!"   
  
The four veterans glanced at each other. Math was personally impressed; he would have killed the damn shiny-man before storming off. Their new companion possessed extreme self-control.  
  
The old sage looked at the irate Paladin.  
  
"You are a Paladin, correct?"  
  
"Yeah, your point?"  
  
"It's just you seem a little...testy...for a holy knight."  
  
"Yeah, your point?"  
  
The old man sighed. "Radamant's tomb lies close to the city walls, where people here used to pray in remembrance of his rule in Lut Gholein. Within the tomb is an ancient Horadric artifact, a cube that has transmutative properties. We need it to complete a staff to gain entry to Tal Rasha's tomb.  
  
"Many Horadric mages were mummified and entombed with him to protect him in the afterlife, but he has risen, resurrected the mages, and left them to protect his tomb. We believe they are now guarding the Cube."  
  
Niklaus nodded and marched outside.  
  
~~~  
  
The tomb *was* a short walk from the city walls. Upon discovering that Radamant was not the benign monarch he was in life, however, the footpaths had been understandably abandoned.  
  
It was still early morning, and so the desert hadn't become a burning inferno just yet. With any luck, Niklaus would be able to get inside the tomb before the sun got too high.  
  
Although it was only Sasha considering these things. Niklaus had worked himself into a right rage.  
  
"Triple-damned, Light-blinded, ignoramus..."the insults flew fast and furious as Niklaus sought to find the right combination of invectives against the pomposity that was Duane of Skelgard. "Tin-sworded, moronic...*arrogant*..."   
  
"Son of a Damned Shiny Man," Sasha supplied.  
  
"Yeah, that's good," Niklaus agreed, and applied Sasha's suggestion to his own list.  
  
"No," Sasha corrected, "*you're* the son of a damned Shiny-man."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Didja think for a second before you came marching out here beyond the city walls?"  
  
"...."  
  
"Okay, the people you just stormed away from slew Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, and they're hesitant about going in here? What conclusion would a sane, logical person arrive at?"  
  
"That they're resting, I would think," Niklaus concluded.  
  
"Or that they're up against something that just might be kinda rough. And while there are three of them, there's one of us to go around. Specifically, there's one possessed and currently very pissed off one of us to go around, and he's the one with the sword. How long do you really think he'll last?"  
  
Niklaus considered, but kept walking. "I'll cool off once things start dropping."  
  
"Your body will cool off as it's bleeding on the floor."  
  
"You said something like that when we were up against those skeletons the first time. And I said that if we have faith in each other, we'll triumph."  
  
"And what about those figures over there? Who do they have faith in?"  
  
Niklaus glanced to the town wall. Not a hundred yards away was Radamant's tomb, and a small group of shadowed figures. Niklaus knew how Lut Gholein felt about the tomb of late, and it didn't seem right that someone might be praying. His hand lingered to Silence, and his thumb flicked against the guard, loosening the blade from its sheath.  
  
The figures by the tomb noticed him and they looked in his direction. Silence flashed out of the sheath. He knew that these weren't city people coming to pray.  
  
Perhaps it was the forked tongue that snaked out from a serpentine head, or maybe even the tail that wove back and forth to provide movement, or perhaps even it may have been the rapid and seeminly hostile advance.  
  
Niklaus figured it had to be the advance that gave them away. Just as he determined their intentions, one of them threw off its robes revealing a snake-like body.  
  
Definitely not a city-dweller.  
  
Niklaus caught the first demon across its chest as Sasha lit the Aura of Concentration. Silence split open the creature for an indepth anatomy lesson (Silence bit in deep, after all), but the creature simply wouldn't lie still for a few seconds. Then, quite inconsiderately, it fell face down, ruining any possibility for examination.  
  
The second creature charged in, only this time dove headfirst into the sand. Puzzled at first (Niklaus had heard of a strange species of bird doing this) he jerked Silence upwards to parry the creature's tail which had arced over its back. Niklaus saw a nasty curving spike go flying away from the fight, and figured it must have belonged to his attacker.  
  
Niklaus preoccupied himself with this species' anatomy, opening up another chest, but was interrupted by yet another experiment. He slashed again, but this one ducked away, and Niklaus was bowled over from a completely different direction.  
  
He skidded across the warming sands, and turned to regard his attacker balefully. Undaunted, the serpentine demon charged in again, and Niklaus barely dodged out of the way before cutting it across the chest. He swung Silence for the finishing strike, but was bowled over yet again. Vainly, Sasha lit an Aura of Defiance, enhancing his armor, but it proved to no avail as another demon lunged in, clocking Niklaus and hurling him into unconsciousness. Sasha's world went black as Niklaus lost his senses.  
  
"Dammit!" she swore as the swordsman fell over backwards. She braced herself, waiting to feel the inevitable death strike. She felt strange, reptilian hands grope under Niklaus and inexplicably hoist him up. They made their way across the desert sands as the sun rose, warming Niklaus's skin.  
  
"Aw hells, what now?"  
  
~~~  
  
"He's been gone too long!" Ulfgar boomed.  
  
"Yes, and likely dead if he went to the tombs," Simon reasoned calmly.  
  
"I refuse to believe that!" Ulfgar boomed again, "He is too skilled to lose to a few zombies!" He was starting to match Duane of Skelgard for pure volume.  
  
"The tomb is dangerous. The Horadric mummies entombed there were tied to Radamant while he lived, and though they'll eventually wane in strength with his death they're still too powerful for us to face in any great number. For the moment let's leave the undead to their own devices and attack them when they're weaker. We still need to aquire the staff and headpiece to complete the Staff.  
  
"There should be a city far out in the desert, long deserted, where both pieces can be recovered. We still need the cube to morph the pieces back into their original shapes, but until then we can start on the shaft."  
  
~~~  
  
Niklaus was still unconscious. Sasha wasn't.  
  
This sucks, Sasha thought. She had tried shouting, prodding, igniting channels (which was amusing because the serpent men soiled their tails everytime she did) but the Paladin himself remained somnolent. He had taken a pretty nasty hit to the head, though, so it was small wonder.  
  
Meanwhile, Sasha had poured her efforts into healing Niklaus' body. The serpent men were unaware of the effects of the Aura, and Sasha switched Auras occasionally so they would think Niklaus was just being spasmodic, but meanwhile Niklaus' body healed. Sasha could just hope that he would wake soon.  
  
Sasha couldn't say how long they travelled, but she knew they had not stopped. She had worried about heat injuries, but had found an Aura that protected them from the elements. She had switched between that and the healing Aura the most.  
  
She really wished Niklaus would wake up.  
  
After an indeterminate amount of time (it could have been a full day; after dying, Sasha found she had a bad sense of time for some reason) the temperature on Niklaus abruptly dropped, and Sasha wondered if they had gone indoors somewhere.  
  
Down and down they travelled, further and further into the darkness. At long last the unconscious Paladin was set upon a stone slab.  
  
Sibilant voices chanted, and then after reaching some great crescendo, Sasha felt a piercing pain stab through Niklaus' stomach as a sacrifical knife plunged through them.  
  
"Aw shit!" Sasha screamed as pain coursed through her, "I just finished healing that part too!" 


	10. Fury

Niklaus groaned to the pain of consciousness.  
  
"Well, it's nice to see you've joined us," Sasha commented dryly.  
  
"How long was I out?"  
  
"I have no idea. Time doesn't seem to pass the same when you're dead."  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"I dunno, your eyes were closed."  
  
"Okay, why does my stomach hurt?"  
  
"Something put a knife in it."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Niklaus paused. "Who stabbed me?"  
  
"I dunno."  
  
"Y'know, you're just not worth shooting."  
  
"I wish you'd thought of that a few months ago."  
  
"Hey, I think we're even on that score."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Well, I stabbed you, and I got stabbed, I'd think we'd be even."  
  
"No, I got stabbed and decapitated, you just got stabbed. Get your head chopped off and we'll call it even."  
  
"...I like my memory of it better."  
  
"Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"  
  
"We'll talk about that later. Let's get out of this now."  
  
Niklaus opened his eyes and looked around. Carefully, since there were quite a few dead things around him. As any Paladin knows, being around dead things still isn't safe.  
  
Fortunately, these were normal dead things, not the get-up-out-of-the-grave-and-wreak-havoc-upon-a-poor-and-defenseless-human-population kind of dead things.  
  
Secondly, they were all armed in the style of the desert mercenaries he had seen riding into Lut Gholein. Which was to say they were armed to the teeth.  
  
However, most of those teeth, as well as a goodly portion of viscera, were spread across the floor in a bloody mess.  
  
He looked down at the floor and realized that the blood was squelching between his toes. Then he realized that he was in the nude, bereft of even his leggings.  
  
"Big boy, aren't we?" Sasha choked out, stifling a laugh.  
  
"Aw, shuddup and help me find some clothes."  
  
"Stop staring at yourself then."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
After a while, they managed to piece together enough intact clothing and armor to make Niklaus feel a little safer, as well as commandeer a pike with a forked end. Niklaus was relatively comfortable weilding it in the narrow yet long hallways. Niklaus was ready to head off but something glinted in the corner of his eye. He walked over and picked up the strangest looking sword (at least it looked like a sword) he had ever seen.  
  
It had a long handle, obviously for two hands, but the blade was short and the entire thing was incredibly lightweight.  
  
The end of the sword was also weird. Normally, swords taper towards the end, to improve the weapon's balance. On this thing, the end flared to a protrustions of sharp points and concave edges.  
  
He would have at first thought it to be a club, but there was definitely an edge on one side.  
  
However, it was still balanced well, although when Niklaus swung it, it almost swung like a mace.  
  
Then there was the feel to it...there was something fell inside the blade, a sense of cruel forboding and utter, pure malice. Niklaus swung the weapon again.  
  
"Did that thing just shriek?" Sasha asked, similarly curious about the weapon.  
  
"I don't think so, lemme try again." Niklaus swung it, but didn't hear anything.  
  
"No, it's there, I heard it."  
  
Niklaus swung the blade a few more times. Sasha heard the thing shriek a few more times. However, Niklaus curtailed experimentation until he could find a more suitable location.  
  
Niklaus scavenged around until he found a suitable sheath. It may have been a quiver for arrows, but it would do for now. He attached the quiver to his right hip and made for the door.  
  
Heaving it open, he peered into the blackness. It was, unsurprisingly, dark.  
  
"Wow, there's a surprise."  
  
"Hush, I'm trying to let my eyes adapt."  
  
"Do I need to be quiet for your eyes to work?"  
  
"No, but until my eyes adapt I have to work off my ears, which I can't do if you're talking."  
  
Sasha blew a raspberry.  
  
"Can't hear if you do that too."  
  
Niklaus' eyes adjusted quickly, and Sasha ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, allowing details to leap into focus and vastly improving his night-vision.  
  
Niklaus snuck into the gloom, keeping the pike well in front of him and taking advantage of the narrow halls. He looked down and saw curious tracks.  
  
"They look like snake-tracks," Niklaus observed.  
  
"Well, they might be those things that attacked you outside the city."  
  
"Those snake-like things?"  
  
"Were there anything else?"  
  
"I got hit in the head, remember?"  
  
"So? It's not like there's anything there to worry about?"  
  
"Nice way to talk to your host."  
  
"I don't remember getting an invitation."  
  
"It was right after the stabbing."  
  
"You mean the decapitation. Is *that* how Paladin ask a girl out? Well Nik, flowers would have been better, doncha think?"  
  
"Ug smash girl on head, take to cave, boff like mad," Niklaus joked back in the darkness.  
  
"Oh, I feel faint!" Sasha fluttered.  
  
Suddenly, the absurdity of the moment caught up with the both of them: the image of a single man creeping down a corridor with a spear and sword in borrowed armor against unknowable odds and hitting on himself was rather silly.  
  
Niklaus and Sasha collapsed in a terminal case of giggles.  
  
"So would this mean I'm trying to screw myself?"  
  
"You try that and you'll go blind!"  
  
That sent them both into fresh peals of laughter. It didn't help when Sasha suggested that Niklaus check his palms.  
  
This went on for several minutes, but also brought them to the attention of several of the snake-beings that traversed the halls. Curiously, three creatures made their way to see a hysterical human nearly rolling in the hallway. Astonished at this unprecedented behavior (it must be some mammal thing) they edged closer to the strange human.  
  
Quite contrary to any sensical action, the human saw them come closer and actually laughed harder. The snake-creatures knew that sometimes mammals' weak minds would crack under excessive strain, but this was quite unlike the exhibited behavior they had seen in other humans.  
  
The human, weak from his exhertions, staggered over to the snake men and collapsed on one's shoulder, still laughing. The snake-men looked at one another.  
  
#Are you hungry?# asked one in its sibilant language.  
  
#No, I just ate a week ago, I'm still full,# replied another, seconded by the third.  
  
#What are we going to do?# asked the first.  
  
#Maybe we should kill it,# opted the third.  
  
#It wouldn't be fresh when we did get hungry,# the second said, and the others hissed in agreement.  
  
#Well, we can't have it wander around like this,# the first said, then turned to the third for its agreement.  
  
The third was laying on the floor, rapidly cooling. The first snake-man also noticed that the strange mammal was no longer laughing.  
  
The first and second snake-men turned towards the Paladin, now aglow with the Aura of Concentration, as the pike snaked out (pardon the pun) and speared both of them through the skull, silencing them instantly.  
  
Niklaus missed Silence.  
  
"Well, that takes care of those three," Sasha volunteered, "how many more do you think there are?"  
  
"Who knows? At least we've got these dead."  
  
"Yeah, but how were their sense of smell? If they were good, then it's a sure bet the rest will smell something and come investigate."  
  
"Then we'd better leave while we can. The air smells pretty fresh, so I'm willing to wager we aren't very far from the surface."  
  
They made their way through the oppresive darkness, Sasha once again igniting the Aura of Blessed Aim (the name amused her greatly).  
  
They made fairly good progress through the dank hallways, coming across small parties and spearing them quickly with the pike.  
  
Niklaus snuck along, keeping to the shadows, pike out and at the ready. He explored every wisp of fresh air he scented; unfortunately, he must have scented wrong, because he usually found himself at a dead end.  
  
However, he came at last to a set of stairs. Sadly, they led downwards.  
  
"Well, at least it's some stairs. Maybe there are some down there that lead to the surface," Sasha reasoned.  
  
"It's worth a try," Niklaus agreed, and they started downstairs.  
  
To say the least, confronting a horde of more snake-men and a smattering of undead is somewhat disheartening. Especially when one is a possessed Paladin armed with second-hand (and likely lower quality) armor, a stick with a pointy end, and some weird sword/club hybrid that makes a shrieking noise that only one half of said Paladin can hear.  
  
Especially when there are a pile of human sacrifices one can see in the corner, all of which are disturbingly fresh.  
  
Conversely, the multitudes of snake-men and smattering of undead were somewhat perturbed by one of their sacrifices standing at the head of the stairs, fully clothed and armed, and likely rather put off at being sacrificed.  
  
Hastily, Niklaus backed up the narrow stairwell as the snake-men rushed him, determined to sacrifice him proper this time.  
  
The pike head lanced in and out of the crowding mass. Fortunately, girth of the snake-men prevented them from gaining entry into the stairs, and Niklaus was able to fend them off fairly well.  
  
Then his skin prickled as he felt another enemy behind him. He didn't have time to switch the pike, and was busy fending off the enemies down the stairs anyway.  
  
The strange sword flashed out of its impromptu sheath, and whirled behind him. He felt very slight resistance as the weapon cut--it must have been an undead, it cut through so easily--and he whirled the strange sword to ward off any incoming hits, then spun the sword to decapitate the undead foe.  
  
He panicked when the sword hit only air; this foe was a skilled undead, and he had his hands full already with the mass before him.  
  
Sasha thought quickly and flashed the demons' brainpan with a bolt of electricity and Niklaus spun upwards, switching sword and pike expertly to position himself nearer the foe behind him.  
  
He slipped on a piece of viscera and promptly landed on his once-holy ass.  
  
Desperately, he tried to regain his footing, but the snake-men were upon him, and desperately he swung the strange sword.  
  
Inexplicably, the snake-men he cut virtually exploded in a horrible mass of internal organs.  
  
Everything stopped as all eyes fell onto the weapon that had ripped apart several snake-men with a single cut, from an astonished Paladin (and resident succubus) to a multitude of shocked snake demons. Although the shocked part could be attributed to the burst of electricity that Sasha had stunned their opponents with.  
  
A small, somewhat demented smile quickly blossomed into a truly manic grin upon the Paladin's face and the wisps of another Aura drifted around him, quickly growing in fiery oranges and reds.  
  
Whee.  
  
The stairwell exploded, throwing snake-men everywhere as an inferno strode into the room.  
  
The first time Sasha had fully BloodLusted outside the village in Westmarch, Niklaus had been helpless amidst the tides of her urges. Now in a true fight to the death, he fully embraced the BloodLust as they rocketed into the disorganized mass.  
  
Body parts flew everywhere as the curious sword sang in destructive revelry. Snake-men, reknowned for their brutal charges and vicious talons, slowed to a mere crawl as Niklaus and Sasha wove through them, expertly dodging attacks and hewing limbs.  
  
Niklaus charged into a mass, knocking one into others and rendereing them senseless before he hacked at them with preternatural speed. He then rocketed into another amassing force and delivered similar punishment.  
  
Niklaus whirled the weapon in tight arcs, parrying (and not coincidentally, separating) attacking claws and responding with repeatedly flawless coup de grace, dismantling his opponents as effectively here as on any battlefield.  
  
Niklaus then turned on the sluggish undead, where the strange weapon tore through them like rotten cheesecloth. He then bore full-tilt into another massing group of snake-men, and dismissed them cruelly.  
  
Before long, Niklaus found himself surrounded only by dead bodies.  
  
And clapping.  
  
He looked up, still in Sasha's BloodLust, and saw a Horadric Ancient standing in front of a podium, wielding a sacrifical knife. The Aura flashed even brighter as Sasha recognized the weapon as the one that had pierced Niklaus.  
  
"Impressive, mortal," the Ancient rasped, "but not nearly enough, for you are too late."  
  
Suddenly, the ceiling rippled, exposing the hot desert sun. Niklaus didn't care about the heat; he had one more enemy to dispose of.  
  
However, They sky suddenly darkened as if an eclipse suddenly blocked out the sun.  
  
Niklaus and Sasha only noted it with passing interest. Their main focus was on the Ancient at the altar.  
  
That figure darkened along with the fading sun, but not in the conventional "in the shadows" sort of darkening. It was as if the darkness cloaked the Ancient in an evil cocoon.  
  
"Well of course it'd be wrapped up in something evil," Sasha snapped, impatient to kill something, "it's a corrupted Ancient!"  
  
Niklaus nodded and charged into the darkness. He was promptly blown backwards by a telekinetic blast. Hastily, he picked himself back up and charged in again.  
  
He met the next blast head on, and the two strove against each other for dominance. The air rippled and sand was tossed into the air as the struggle continued.  
  
Eventually, Niklaus lost his footing and was knocked back again. He picked himself up one more time to see the darkness pull away from the Ancient.  
  
Whereas the Ancient was largely rotting anyway, now the rot had gone to an extreme, barely leaving any flesh on the skeleton.  
  
The Ancient laughed, but this time it laughed with a resonating timbre. "See what I have become!" it announced proudly, reveling in its newfound glory.  
  
"I see a pile of bones that needs stomping," Niklaus grinned at the leering undead.  
  
The undead roared and leapt off the altar, charging towards Niklaus. Niklaus grinned and charged at the undead.  
  
They raced past each other, flashing their weapons and missing simultaneously. Niklaus braced his foot off an onrushing wall and propelled himself at the undead again. The undead had no wall to brace against, and as it skidded to a halt, it caught a Niklaus-shaped cannonball as the Paladin dropped his shoulder and sent the corpse flying. Niklaus charged again and caught the Ancient just as hit neared the ground, propelling it upwards yet again.  
  
This time the revenant had the unfortunate fate to land near the opposite wall as the raging Paladin charged in and shattered the Ancient against the wall. He instantly took to vigorously jumping up and down on the shattered corpse.  
  
Now exhausted, Niklaus surveyed the scene as Sasha wore herself out on her Bloodlust. To say the least, it was complete and utter carnage. There were more body parts than bodies laying around, and most of them were in unrecognizable chunks.  
  
"Wow that was good," Sasha panted, "I need a smoke."  
  
"Take a look at this," Niklaus said of the carnage.  
  
Sasha paused. "Damn, it must have been good for you too."  
  
"Yeah, it was, but a sword shouldn't have made them...explode like that."  
  
Sasha sobered slightly, although she still felt wobbly. "Yeah, I guess it shouldn't have."  
  
Niklaus looked cautiously at the blade. "There's no blood on it, either."  
  
"There's a lot on us, though."  
  
"Yeah, I wanna shower. That was disgusting."  
  
"Oh, you had fun, admit it."  
  
"Well, we were vanquishing the forces of Hell and all..."  
  
"Nik," Sasha interrupted, "are you saying it wasn't good?"  
  
"No no! It was great, but very messy."  
  
"Well," Sasha said, "Y'know, that does happen when two people...."  
  
"What does two people have to do with slaying demons?"  
  
"Oh!" Sasha exclaimed, "I thought you meant...never mind." 


	11. The Lost City

Author's note: Hi all! Just a couple of things, then I'll start the story back up.  
  
Okay, the question was asked about Nik's new weapon. Without spoiling too much, here's a rundown of how I wrote this out: I was trying to be realistic.   
  
Now that you've all picked yourself up off the ground from that bit of hysterics, hear me out :P  
  
Granted, being realistic is hard to do when you have people that can jump through ceilings, toss fireballs like footballs, can summon wolves and storms, etc.  
  
But I wanted at least something to be based in reality. So I figured I'd pick the weaponry.  
  
Okay, for anyone who doesn't fence or have any grasp on medieval combat, getting hit with a sword hurts a lot. Which is really the point when you get down to it, 'cos you're trying to kill whoever it is who you hit with the sword, and there's usually some pain that goes along with it.  
  
Okay, now in real life a simple steel sword will accomplish that relatively well. It also causes (among other things) open wounds that bleed uncontrollably, and if used correctly, do a lot more damage than you might think. If you think otherwise, take a look at a smallsword at some point: it's a glorified metal toothpick, but it can quite easily go right through someone without so much as a by-your-leave.  
  
Okay, now, I am a big fan of the runeword Fury. It does all sorts of nifty things in the game that I personally like, including ignoring armor, preventing monster heal, and so on.  
  
However, (and again, trying to stick to reality) a normal sword, used correctly, will accomplish the exact same thing.  
  
So, if a normal regular sword can do all that and a bag of chips, what could possibly make Fury so nasty in comparison?  
  
I figure that while in the game it does a *lot* of nasty stuff even though it can't kill in one hit, in the Saga (taking advantage of some reality) it tears monsters apart. It would thus do an insanely increased amount of damage--based from a normal sword that already does a lot--to be able to ignore a target's defense (which I equate to tearing through the armor), as well as a bunch of other stuff that just makes it downright ugly to contemplate, and so the Fury of Niklaus Saga came into being.  
  
Okay, and with that I can finally finish up writing the Niklaus Saga. I was having horrible writer's block, but since I got that explanation out of the way (with the possible aid of a rhetorical Fury weapon), I'm now inspired again.  
  
Oh, and on the bit about inspiration: thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It's really your support that inspires me to keep this thing going. Now, with the requisite mush out of the way, let's go kill something.  
  
_______________________________________________________________  
  
The band made their way through the fabled Lost City of Aranoch. Not that it was much of a mystery; it was there, it existed not only de facto but on any decent map of the area. It had been the site of extensive research and exploration, thus the appellate "fable" was somewhat misleading.  
  
"Mysterious" might have been a better word. Or perhaps "enigmatic" or maybe even "damn strange," even though that was actually two words. What made the Lost City so puzzling was that somehow the entire city had been slain by something dark and nasty literally overnight. No one had any logical explanation, although several facts offered a compelling hypothesis.  
  
Namely, the city had grown out of an archeological site that bore extensive evidence of preexisting cultures and even ancient dominant species. Quite unexpectedly, archeologists discovered what appeared to be an ancient temple maintained by one of those preexisting dominant species.  
  
Artifacts from the initial excavations indicated that the ancient race were cunning wizards, although their arts tended strongly towards hellish magics. They also tended towards a very cold-natured disposition, given over to calculated acts of cruelty that many modern warm-blooded torturers would have blushed at.  
  
However, they seemed keen on effective conservation, often resurrecting the bodies of their victims (the ones they didn't eat) to serve them for all eternity.  
  
The former inhabitants of the Lost City would have found all this very interesting, and would no doubt have been twice as interested to learn that they were unknowingly unearthing said race from millenia of magic-induced hibernation.  
  
Not that anyone in the band currently exploring the ruins of the Lost City really knew all this, except Simon. He had just been sharing this information with Ulfgar as they arrived at the ruins.  
  
Simon knew that only Ulfgar had an interest in the information; Math was more concerned about immediate threats, and Duane's eyes had long glassed over from overhearing the pale priest.  
  
Simon shook his head and remembered the row Duane of Skelgard had caused when they were trying to procure camels for the journey. Despite the weight and insulation his armor provided (obviously lethal in a desert), Duane had insisted on wearing full armor into the desert, despite the risk to self and mount.  
  
It had taken a good deal of cajolement, wheedling, and downright coercion to get Duane of Skelgard to forsake his gleaming plate in lieu of more regional armor that allowed for greater ventilation and considerably less weight.  
  
Yet Duane had insisted of keeping his vambraces for some unknown reason. Math had long decided that it was the easiest way to reflect the sunlight directly into someone else's eyes during Duane's more manic gesticulations of praise (for the Light, of course) or derision (for his companions, of course).  
  
It had been difficult for Ulfgar to procure a ride as well, but for different reasons. Namely, the desert camels were smaller than their northern equine counterparts to allow for more effective heat dispersion. As such they were lighter-weight and were not as well-muscled.  
  
Ulfgar was far from light-weight and lightly muscled, and the resulting dichotomy had forced Ulfgar to hike across the entire desert on foot.  
  
Ulfgar seemed to take to the desert extremes as easily as he took to the frigid temperatures of his homeland however, which made Simon wonder if Ulfgar was truly human.  
  
However, he had a soul, which was unique to life on Sanctuary, so he definitely wasn't demon or angel.  
  
Simon was relieved on that score at least. Casting his gaze back to Duane of Skelgard, Simon silently renewed his order's vow to expunge both Heaven and Hell from Sanctuary, and leave his homeworld to the cycles of life and death that dwelled within.  
  
It would be much nicer to do without Duane of Skelgard's or any Paladin's company.   
  
The thought of their other Paladin, Niklaus, sobered Simon. He hadn't been part of their party for long, yet the priest felt that Niklaus was an inherently good man, despite his training in the Light. He seemed to dismiss most of the prohibitions that Paladin monks swore to uphold as if they no longer applied to him. In all actuality, he seemed to be a fallen Paladin, one bereft of his holy Auras due to sin--according to the teachings of Akarat, of course. Simon had seen him eye the various women at Atma's tavern, those same women Duane had conspicuously avoided looking at.  
  
They were all a sober bunch from his disappearance, especially Ulfgar and Sarah. The two warriors were subdued (incredibly, Sarah was even more verbally subdued than usual) upon Silence's recovery, Niklaus' enchanted sword. Ulfgar had taken the sword reverently and had carried it ever since, claiming it as the way of his tribe.  
  
Surprisingly, Math had nodded in sympathy. Despite their initial hostility, the two had become comrades, having discovered they shared a common ancestor. Simon was only vaguely familiar with northern beliefs, but knew that ancestor worship was an integral part of northern beliefs, which helped explain why Ulfgar and Math had set aside their hostilities.   
  
As a part of that, carrying the weapons of the deceased also carried their strength and cunning into battle.  
  
Duane had insisted that to do so was to believe in superstitions and fairy tales, but Simon had quickly quelled the two warrior's rage, explaining that Duane was a simpleton that couldn't tell wisdom from his own backside. The two warriors had cooled at that.  
  
Simon thanked his dealings with the dead; usually it was through his direct intervention that the multitude of wisps and wraiths that were bound to him did not fall into their own civil war.  
  
Duane didn't understand any of their concerns. All he did was prattle on about the glory of Light and how could Niklaus lend his strength since he was dead and not here to lend his Auras (which might have been demonic in origin anyway) and was obviously not in Sanctuary so why bother?  
  
Simon wondered if it might not be because Duane was eyeing Silence for himself, but after *both* Ulfgar and Math growled at him did he back off.  
  
Simon noticed that afterwards Duane did "accidentally" shine his vambraces into Ulfgar's and Math's eyes a lot, giving credence to Math's earlier declaration.  
  
Sarah rode ahead, her cloak pulled ever further down over her eyes. She had accepted Silence as token that its bearer was long dead. She had maintained her typical professionalism, but the others had noticed a distinct change in her demeanor. Wheras before she had been cool, now she had become absolutely frigid, often wreaking cruel and indiscriminate destruction on any desert-inhabiting demon they had encountered.  
  
Math had attempted to socialize with her, but shortly found himself at the business end of a nocked arrow. Wisely he decided not to press the point any further; Sarah had pressed her point quite far enough up his nostril, thank you very much.  
  
The band came up to the not-so-fabled-but-more-aptly-named-Mysteriously-Lost-City and dismounted to explore.  
  
The first thing they noticed was the plethora of undead, damn dirty stinking shuffling slow-thinking moaning undead.  
  
Although whiel they did stink and were quite damned, they weren't shuffling or moaning.  
  
Investigations revealed that they had been quite robbed of their shuffling or moaning ability. As Simon knelt down (being accustomed to things in various states of decay) to look closer, he found that most of the musculature had been severed, leaving the creature incapable of motion. After that, the entire body had been vigorously stomped, leaving it quite incapable of moaning or even thinking, however slow.  
  
"Well, it's quite obvious what happened here," Duane reasoned at ear-splitting volumes, "the creatures here realized their path of damnation, and instead of following that road to its fell conclusion, they ended their unlife early."  
  
Sarah rolled her eyes under her hood and compared the quantity of her quiver to the number of chinks she could see in the shiny-man's armor. Ruefully, she looked back to the day Kashya had assigned her to Simon's group. Even then she realized that Duane had nothing on the wisdom and experience of a pot of uncooked stew. And most vegetables, for that matter.  
  
Meanwhile, a slow grin played across Ulfgar's mouth as he recognized the handiwork. "C'mon!" he exclaimed, and the others were compelled to follow.  
  
Stashing his axe, Ulfgar dropped to all fours, slinking across the city alleys like a panther, casting his gaze this way and that. Behind him followed Math, who mimicked his actions but started sniffing the air.  
  
For just a moment, Simon and Duane looked askance at each other, completely baffled at their comrades' antics. However, it didn't seem to stop them and so they dashed towards the rapidly retreating pair.  
  
Sarah lingered behind, head pulled into hood. Something hadn't quite fit somewhere, and her Eye couldn't discern what exactly was off.  
  
She pulled further into her hood, and opened herself completely to her Eye. Time slowed to a crawl as her perception increased to insane speeds. She could literally watch gusts of winds as if they were wraiths, and no speck of sand escaped her notice.   
  
This was the gift of the Sightless Eye, to see completely by thought. The Eye perceived all at an accelerated pace, allowing her to glimpse at the all-encompassing reality that was existence pace by so slow a child could catch everything.  
  
Sarah waited as the world crawled sluggishly by.  
  
The hood quivered slightly as her Eye gazed this way and that throughout the Alley.  
  
She must have had a dry Eye that day, 'cos she couldn't see shit!  
  
The world returned to normal (just slightly slow) as Sarah cursed to herself. There was something here dammit! She knew it! Where the hell was it?  
  
Then she jumped nearly out of her skin as a voice behind her said "Boo!"  
  
She spun and drew her dagger in one fluid move and thrust it forward, impaling her stalker.  
  
Or rather would have if her stalker had not expected the attack. He did, however, and pivoted fluidly himself, knocking the blade aside then stepping in to flip her over his hip.  
  
However, she herself was familiar with this move and slipped out of his throw, positioning herself behind him and dropping an elbow into his kidney.  
  
Except he was familiar with that move himself, spun away from the attack, lashing out with a foot to knock her off balance.  
  
With cool rage (of course) Sarah stepped over her attacker's foot and would have drawn her rapier had her attacker not expected *that* and inconveniently placed his hip in the way.  
  
Although trained in weapons, Sarah was similarly disciplined in unarmed combat, and thus began a rapid flurry of elbow strikes and shoves in an attempt to dislodge her attacker.  
  
Every strike was countered, every move blocked. Sarah was getting hot under the collar, an exceptional circumstance.  
  
However, she was a follower of the Sightless Eye, and could call upon its aid even under the most extreme duress.  
  
Time slowed again, and although she could not move as fast as she could perceive, she could almost leisurely pick out her attacks and blocks.  
  
They battled on, silently (for a Sister never utters a sound during combat, even if in pain), the muffled sounds of blocked punches and kicks insufficient to reach the ears of her comrades.  
  
So she battled on, watching the combat proceed at a snail's pace. She knew she could wear her attacker down, and strike the deathblow with as much accuracy of her arrows.  
  
Then she noticed a fiery orange tinge around her attacker, which quickly (even in her accelerated perceptive state) bloomed into a maelstrom of energy. Blindingly fast even perceiving through her Eye, the attacker struck her square in the chest, knocking her into a far wall.  
  
Aghast, she watched in unguarded concern (not fear, mind) while the monster charged straight for her, arms outstretched as if to rend her apart.  
  
She recoiled involuntarily as the creatures hands (not claws, interesting) slammed into the wall at either side, crumbling the already decrepit construction, yet stopping his advance.  
  
Sarah regarded her attacker in wonder. It was humanoid, hidden under a ragged robe oft-mended. Its face was hidden under a deep hood, revealing only a very human-looking mouth.  
  
Said mouth was currently grinning like a dog that had just gotten away with something it knows it shouldn't have.  
  
One hand reached back to reveal a scarred visage framed with shoulder-length unkempt red hair, green eyes, and a ragged beard wrapped around a goofy grin.  
  
"Niklaus!" Sarah said in complete and utter shock.  
  
"I don't think I've ever seen you this emotional," Niklaus said, still grinning broadly.  
  
"When did your Eye open?"  
  
"It didn't, but what you taught me did help. So how goes it?"  
  
Sarah didn't respond except to attack him once again. Somehow, though, kissing someone was an odd form of attack.  
  
However, it was quite effective in immoblizing Niklaus. Like everything in Sarah's life, it was direct, efficient, and completely ruthless as it drove Niklaus' hormones into the stratosphere.  
  
she broke away from the kiss and Niklaus consciously uncurled his toes. "Don't you *ever* fight angry again," she said coldly, "you might end up dead from it." And with that she spun to march off.  
  
Completely baffled from the double-tongue lashing, Niklaus took a second to recover and catch up with Sarah.  
  
"The others are ahead, attempting to locate a temple built by some ancient race," she informed him.  
  
"I've already been to the temple, and if they're going that way, they're going the wrong direction," Niklaus said.  
  
"When were you there?"  
  
"About a week ago, when they dragged me in there to sacrifice me."  
  
"And what happened?"  
  
"They sacrificed me."  
  
"Oh. Somewhat inefficient. What did they use?"  
  
"A big damn knife."  
  
"Oh hells, it's not like you were awake for that part!" Sasha interjected accusingly.  
  
"You're still walking though," Sarah continued.  
  
"Well, I do have this healing Aura that...heals people."  
  
"So where are the people that sacrificed you now?"  
  
"In the temple, full of big damn knives. Some sort of snake things, actually."  
  
"Oh. Well, we'd better catch up with the others and let them know you're alive."  
  
~~~  
  
The six of them camped in Niklaus' temporary home, a fairly strong-walled structure that opened into a narrow alley. Niklaus had chosen the building because it was one of the few left that still had a roof, and the narrow alley prevented too many monsters from swarming should he have to make a stand.  
  
They were surrounded by various bladders full to bursting with water that Niklaus had harvested during his time there. The huge insects of the Aranoch carried several such bladders full of purified water to help survive the harsh desert heat. Niklaus had found a way to fell these insects and harvest them for his own survival.  
  
Niklaus sat away from the campfire, desiring solitude despite his rib-crushing reunion with Ulfgar. He regarded the two swords before him.  
  
In his right hand was Silence, his father's sword, heavily enchanted and powerful, with its bronze ricasso, long hilt and sweeping crossguard.  
  
In his left was the weapon Fury as Simon had explained to him, with its brutal ridges and long grip. It too had a ricasso but no guard, nothing to detract from its brutal purpose. He noticed intricate runes on the weapon as on Silence, but with a more bloody purpose in mind. Those runes gave the weapon its ability to deliver such horrific wounds.  
  
Simon said that the runes etched onto the weapon were of a far Eastern configuration, where fencing was built around the idea of a single fatal attack, and thus the blade was enchanted to do the most damage possible in a single hit.  
  
Ulfgar had offered to teach him how to use two weapons at once, but he declined; Silence was too long to wield with a second weapon, and he would only trip himself up.  
  
So Niklaus had rigged a way of carrying his two swords that Ulfgar had suggested, based on a far-eastern warrior he had met once. Both swords were tucked securely under two sashes, then Niklaus had wrapped a wide sash around over the belt, creating a very secure (and comfortable) set-up.  
  
Niklaus had fallen into another introspective mood (he was having them on a fairly regular basis these days). Especially concerning Sarah.  
  
Sarah had fallen back into her cool demeanor ever since that kiss, and Niklaus was starting to doubt it had happened.  
  
"Oh, it happened," Sasha interjected, "even I got turned on by it."  
  
"...Says the demon who gets turned on by violence, bloodshed, and overall destruction," Niklaus finished wryly, "'sides, it's not hard to get you excited."  
  
"Yeah, your point?"  
  
Niklaus chuckled (which coincidentally strengthened Simon's suspicions that the shiny-man might just be insane). "Any woman's insight on what happened back there?"  
  
"Hells if I'd now," Sasha replied, "I'm not a woman, and I never was one. My sisters and I were actually created once the Prime Evils figured out how horny you human men were and how easily you were led around by your pants, it was just a natural course of action."  
  
"Somehow you saying the word 'natural' is a contradiction."  
  
"Don't sass me boy," Sasha said in her best authoritative voice, "I'm old enough to be your ancestor."  
  
"Oh, like the younger men, eh?"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"I mean, I've heard of robbing the cradle before, but...."  
  
"Are you saying I look old?"  
  
"Well, I was rather more preoccupied with those magical attacks of yours, and--"  
  
"Oh, distracted by shiny lights, huh? Is that why you Paladin are called Shiny men?"  
  
"I'm sorry? I got to looking at that fire over there...."  
  
The shared the joke for a while before turning to more pressing matters.  
  
Well, okay, Sarah wasn't exactly a pressing concern per se, but she did occupy a large portion of Niklaus' awareness.  
  
"Well, she *does* have nice legs," Sasha supplied helpfully.  
  
Niklaus decided that Sarah wasn't so pressing. Glad to be back in Ulfgar's company (he had missed the jovial giant) he found a softer bit of sand and dropped off into a deep sleep.  
  
No one had the heart to wake him for his watch. 


	12. Adthck

The next morning Niklaus awoke instantly. Something was amiss, he could feel it.  
  
"What is it?" Sasha asked. Niklaus couldn't be too sure, but something was definitely amiss. He looked around and noticed that Math was watching the morning sun rise. He got up and walked over to the furclad warrior.  
  
"Aren't you going to overheat in all that?" he asked, gesturing towards Math's attire.  
  
"Like my cousin Ulfgar, our people are resilient to the weather. I am fine," the warrior replied, gazing off.  
  
"Cousin?"  
  
"We hail from the same line, one that goes back to Bul-Kathos and his brother Fiacla-Géar."  
  
"Aren't they gods?"  
  
"They are our ancestors. In a sense, we revere them as gods, but they are not gods as you would think of them. However, they did live, and Ulfgar and I are of their descendents."  
  
"That's why you decided to get along?"  
  
Math smiled. "Yes. It is a terrible sin to war within your family, and Ulfgar and I saw our error and have united as family."  
  
The sun rose a little higher.  
  
"What of your family?" Math asked suddenly.  
  
"My father was a Protector of the Word many years ago, and I am his only son." Niklaus drew Silence. "This was his sword, he gave it to me when our monastery was overrun by demons."  
  
"Overrun?"  
  
"More like they allowed themselves to be corrupted."  
  
"Have you no other family?"  
  
"No."  
  
Math thought for a while. "Ulfgar holds you in high regard, higher than me, and we are cousins."  
  
And with that, the Druid got up and went back inside, leaving a very puzzled Niklaus.  
  
"Any idea what that was?" Niklaus asked.  
  
"Hells, I dunno. All this family love crap is foreign to me," Sasha said, equally confused.  
  
They were interrupted by a low rumbling outside the city. Niklaus sprang to his feet while Sasha ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, sharpening his vision. The others leapt to their feet and armed themselves quickly.  
  
The band exited Niklaus' shelter and out of the alley. Everyone looked worried except Niklaus, who only looked concerned.  
  
"Let's spread out," Ulfgar said, uncharacteristically serious. The others nodded and moved into the nearby bazaar, creating as much space as possible while keeping within eyesight of each other.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"We didn't just happen on this place," Sarah said, knocking an arrow and pulling into her hood, "some demon chased us in here, and we thought it safe."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"This demon burrows, and the city is on hard rock, we didn't think it could burrow through solid rock."  
  
"So what kind of demon is it?"  
  
By way of explanation, the bazaar ground suddenly exploded, throwing earth and stone everywhere while a huge demon leapt out of the ground. The demon soon landed on what looked like thousands of legs terminating in hardened spikes. Spying on the humans, it attacked instantly.  
  
One of its huge spiked legs came crashing down, and Niklaus spun roughly away, slicing futilely with Silence as he narrowly avoided the claw.  
  
"Sunuvabitch!" Sasha shouted.  
  
"Scatter!" Sarah shrieked in command, launching a blizzard of arrows at the demon's head.  
  
"It's Adthck!" Sasha shouted at the same time.  
  
"Huh?" Niklaus answered, somewhat distracted by all the legs that seemed to orient on him.  
  
Sarah was about to repeat herself when the demon turned into her blizzard and charged. If not for Simon's sudden intervention, she would surely have been turned to pulp under the massive demon's thousands of legs. Adthck halted suddenly as it found itself blinded, unable to see anything.  
  
Sarah promptly ran like hell.  
  
Adthck was an Evil, however; while not one of the Three or even the Four Lesser Evils, he still commanded many powerful magics, and Simon's curse only lasted a matter of moments. It was enough, however, and Sarah dashed between buildings.  
  
"It's one of the Evils," Sasha explained as she ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, "I don't know why it's here, but it must be something big to get someone that high up into Sanctuary."  
  
Niklaus digested this information as he picked up a large rock and chucked it at the demon millipede's head. The rock richochetted off, but distracted the demon long enough for Sarah to finish her escape.  
  
Unfortunately, the demon also zeroed in on Niklaus, who belatedly realized he had picked up another rock with the same intention as before.  
  
With an apologetic grin, he dropped his rock and dove down the nearest alley as Adthck changed trajectory and charged at him.  
  
Niklaus fled down the narrow alleyway, hoping its width would hinder the beast.  
  
"Um, Nik?" Sasha asked, "that demon is an overgrown millipede, a glorified conscious battering ram, and coincidentally one of Duriel's disciples. D'you really think some crumbling architecture is gonna stop it?"  
  
Niklaus' eyebrow raised towards his hairline as he pondered this new data. Then his heart raised into his throat as he heard a demonic avalanche approach.  
  
Adthck was not, in fact, hindered in the least by such minor triviances as buildings. It neared the warrior and spat caustic phlegm at its quarry.  
  
Sasha ignited the Aura of Vigor, and combined with Niklaus' sudden moment of inspiration (roughly translated: pants-staining rush of adrenaline) and Adthck stopped anew as its quarry disappeared, and briefly wondered if that damn Necromancer had set another curse on it.  
  
It wondered again as something appeared--again seemingly out of nowhere--to crash headlong into its face. Only slightly puzzled (as most of its emotional response capabilities were rather preoccupied with excrutiating pain) it attempted to remove the large axe embedded between its eyes. Unfortunately for the demon, hellish evolution had not quite caught up with ranged offensives, and Adthck's mandibles were entirely incapable of removing the axe. It knocked its head against the ground to dislodge the weapon, but again its mandibles proved a hindrance and all the demon got for its efforts was a sore jaw.  
  
Suddenly a new pain exploded out of its back, and it turned to regard a furred warrior ripping another axe out of its back and rearing to strike again, lumberjack-style. If Adthck could smile, it would have; however, the first axe impeded any facial expressions. Regardless, the attacker on its back could be dealt with easily. It was about to turn its head and snap the man in two when suddenly its powerful neck muscles were overpowered by an overwhelming force. Its head wrenched around until it was eye-to-eye with a mountain (rather an interesting situation, having a murderous-looking moutanin staring back). With a determined look, the mountain rudely retrieved his axe out of the demon's face. Adthck reared back and screamed in pain as ichor rained on the continent.  
  
With murder in its eyes, the demon spread its mandibles to consume the land mass in front of it, only to notice that it too had disappeared in a cloud of dust.  
  
Looking up, it saw the human had become airborn, his bulk blotting out the sun, axe raised high.  
  
~~~  
  
"Nik, get your pants off!" Sasha screamed as Niklaus ran.  
  
"I hardly think this is the time or place for--"  
  
"Not that, stupid! Your pants are melting!"  
  
"Gaah!"  
  
Niklaus hastily pulled his pants off and stood in only his tunic, boots, and weapons, watching in fascination as the acidic spit dissolved his pants.  
  
A sudden burning sensation in his posterior warned him that some of the phlegm had in fact gotten through the material. Sasha hastily ignited another Aura, purging the toxins from his system as he resisted the urge to scratch furiously.  
  
Soon the burning was replaced with a cooling sensation, and Niklaus sighed with relief.  
  
Sarah burst into the enclosure and regarded Niklaus with absolute horror.  
  
"...My pants were melting," Niklaus answered lamely.  
  
"I can see that," Sarah asked, forcing down an uncustomary smile as she regarded his melting pants. She silently added her own private comment.  
  
A not-so-distant roar forced them into the present and they realized that the demon was still quite alive. They ran back into the alleys of the Lost City (or not) to wreak further irritation to the greater demon.  
  
Simon had meanwhile taken advantage of Ulfgar's and Math's distraction to see about raising a small army utilizing the local fauna. This consisted of the zombies and other undead that had served faithfully under the snake-men. With the demise of the nest, they had wandered aimlessly, mindlessly attacking anyone who wandered in. Although Niklaus had done a good job removing most of them, enough remained for Simon to form a defensive line.  
  
Right now they formed a shield wall that the northern warriors were dashing towards. The simple-minded zombies parted enough to let the warriors pass.  
  
As the shield wall closed, Adthck put on a burst of speed, and would have grinned at the fell inevitability of its rush.  
  
The mortals would die. Horribly, if at all possible.  
  
Adthck crashed headlong into the shield wall, and the humans scattered. The undead, being...undead...and thus rather slow, were mowed down.   
  
Adthck raised its head in victory, and promptly collapsed as its wounds caught up with it.  
  
The demon was rather confused by this: aside from the axe it had intercepted with its face, there shouldn't be any other significant wounds. Yet as it looked down the length of its body, Adthck saw severe damage to its shell. It looked at the retreating backside of the crippling necromancer and with an enraged roar, charged after him.  
  
Niklaus ran into the foray and saw Simon running like hell. He ran to help and saw a shield laying on the ground. It was peculiar, holding a dozen or so spikes around the edges and extending from the boss. Snatching the shield as he ran, Niklaus dashed towards the behemoth.  
  
"Look, the tail," Sasha said, directing him to two poisonous stingers that moved angrily. Although the stingers themselves were not so welcome, the soft joint tissue behind them was very much so.  
  
Niklaus charged in, leaning behind the shield. He neared and Silence slashed at the stingers, cleanly removing them from battle and Adthck's behind. Yet the venom that flowed through those stingers was close to spilling onto Niklaus, and would have been lethal even if absorbed through the skin.  
  
Niklaus continued his charge, however, and rammed the shield into Adthck's posterior, preventing any of the venom from pouring onto him.  
  
The demon paused, realizing something was terribly wrong. Looking back, it realized that all was not well in Sanctuary.  
  
However, Sanctuary was the least of the demon's concerns at the moment, because one of those damn mortals had stuck a shield up its ass.  
  
Affronted in its backside, Adthck hissed and spun angrily, attempting to dislodge the intrusion. Niklaus hastily twisted the shield, tearing open capillaries and arteries in Adthck's hindquarters. Adthck screamed again and Niklaus dodged away.  
  
The demon reared and turned to face Niklaus. This was the demon who had conspired against Sasha to bring about her death, this was the demon who had served Duriel when Sasha had gone into exile with the Three, and this was the demon who had done...something else to her. It had been a long time ago, but Sasha was sure it was something really awful.  
  
When Sasha saw those mandibles and bug-eyes (pardon the pun) she became a little upset, and the fiery oranges and reds of the Aura of the Fanatic exploded from the the succubus' essence and surrounded Niklaus.  
  
Duane of Skelgard saw Sasha's Aura and gaped. Only powerful Paladin, having spent years devoted to the Light, were capable of receiving the Aura of the Fanatic. It was a sign of true devotion and the mark of Heaven's Blessing.  
  
Hastily, Duane lit his own Aura of Concentration and Charged towards the demon, refusing to be outdone by this demon, no matter how cruelly he mocked the Light.  
  
Adthck saw the two Paladin charge in, and did something no millipede should be able to do, no matter how overgrown or demonic. It's rear claws dug in to the earth, and its top half reared up into the air. Usually such a sight made mortals stain their pants; however, Niklaus had discarded his and Duane was too jealous of Niklaus (only in a devout and pro-Light sort of way, of course) to think about such petty things as fear or survival.  
  
Adthck oriented on the two approaching Paladin and readied an eldritch spell, only to be interrupted by several sharp objects thunking into the wound in its face. Distraught, the demon tried to focus on the source of this new attack and found the human woman and the large male launching bits of wood and metal into his wound.  
  
Then Adthck was distracted again by two more thunks, which were not so much akin to "thunk" as they were to "crash! bang! oh hells that hurt!" Niklaus and Duane had adjusted trajectory to meet Adthck at his midsection, and the demon was improperly balanced to receive such an attack.  
  
As such, the demon toppled over in a very undignified heap. Niklaus and Duane peeled away to regroup and charge again.  
  
At about that time the group became a team. As Niklaus and Duane peeled away, Simon attacked the demon's psyche again, blinding him as Ulfgar leaped overhead, throwing his daggers into the joints in each leg. By the time the curse wore off, Ulfar had landed safely on a rooftop and out of sight.  
  
Sarah, meanwhile, had found her own rooftop and was firing as fast as she could draw and aim. She aimed at the demon's eyes, forcing it to twist and turn to avoid her arrows.  
  
Niklaus blazed in again, racing towards the beast's head. At the last moment, he Charged, Silence aimed like a lance.  
  
Another interesting facet about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately 600 cavalry charge into the foray, the sight is something to behold.  
  
Visual aesthetics aside, there has yet to be anything that can stand in the way of those shock charges.  
  
Niklaus roared in and thrust through the demon's armored hide to sink into its neck. He hoped fervently that he hit something critical as Adthck staggered sideways under the impact.  
  
Duane came in on the other side, sword in hand, but Adthck sensed the holy blessing he radiated and turned to snap at him. Niklaus thus found himself off the ground and hanging onto Silence's hilt for dear life.  
  
A warrior bearing a demon-inspired Aura may have surprised the demon, but it did notice a flailing human, and turned to Niklaus with murder in its eyes. The demon's head reared towards him, and he had no choice but remove his father's sword.  
  
He hit the ground hard, and coughed. Sasha screamed in BloodLust, and the Paladin rolled to his feet.  
  
Just in time to catch one of the demon's legs across his midsection, hoisting him unceremoniously into the air and despositing him roughly in a room. Fortunately, the wall he passed through to enter the room slowed him enough for the next wall to completely halt his advance.  
  
BloodLust be damned, that hurt. Niklaus rolled around on the ground a little, clutching his head while even Sasha sobered up considerably.  
  
A few short moments and Sasha could have ignited her healing Aura, but as both their wits were scrambled, she couldn't have ignited a fire with flint and tinder. Adthck was preoccupied with their companions at the moment, though, and they found themselves a moment of respite to collect their wits.  
  
"Aw shit that hurt," Sasha complained. Niklaus would have nodded, but the world was spinning enough and he didn't want to add any further trajectories.  
  
Niklaus finally staggered to his feet as Sasha collected her wits. Groggily she finally managed to ignite the healing Aura and they both felt the benefits immediately. Niklaus cracked his neck and felt ribs grind back into place and musculature heal.  
  
"I always hate that part," Niklaus commented as the rest of the healing process completed.  
  
"I could always let you go on with the punctured lung," Sasha said dryly.  
  
"No no, just complaining about a perfectly acceptable system."  
  
"How demonic of you. Should we perhaps go and help our comrades?"  
  
"How human of you."  
  
With a grim smile, Niklaus drew Fury. Silence was a noble sword, but Fury just might be able to finally defeat the Minor Evil.  
  
Meanwhile, Adthck was finally about to slay one of these pesky humans. So far they had been able to keep it off balance and never able to focus on just one, but now it was able to take down this pesky female with the bow.  
  
Held aloft, its pincers piercing through her arm, she struggled futilely against the incredible pain. She stabbed repeatedly with her rapier, but simply couldn't pierce the tough shell. The demon's inner jaws moved upwards, reaching towards its prey.  
  
The sudden loss of a mandible came as quite a surprise for demon and human alike. Sarah fell from her considerable height, but luckily Ulfgar caught her before she could fall.  
  
Adthck spun around to confront the other Paladin, wreathed in the fires of his Aura. Sand whipped around him and into the air as the Aura blazed in dangerous reds.  
  
Adthck might have laughed if it possessed such emotional responses as humor. It didn't, so the demon began looping around the Paladin.  
  
Niklaus was hardly the image of panic or even remote concern. His expression spoke of slow vivisections and similar sweet nothings.  
  
Or perhaps Sasha was expressing herself more at that moment.  
  
In the grand scheme of things, it really didn't matter all that much, because shortly thereafter Niklaus deprived the demon of its other mandible. Adthck squealed in rage and would have stared agape at the human, but no longer could. The demon backed up and brought its length into line, preparing to charge the foolish mortal that had hurt it so.  
  
Adthck still possessed abilities beyond his brute strength, however. Such as the ability to form an eldritch shield before him to shield him from his own colossal collisions. Such a spell was particularly effective against the Holy Paladins, since the orientation of their respective magical mights were so diametrically opposed they would naturally resist each other, much like repelling lodestones. Each regarded the other for a moment, before Niklaus raised Silence like a lance and Adthck lowered its head.   
  
They Charged.  
  
Another interesting fact about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately a thousand cavalry charge into the foray, There was no quarter or surrender. The cavalry simply mowed down anything in its path.  
  
It was this bit of human history that Niklaus found himself reenacting as he bore down upon the approaching demon.  
  
Sasha and Niklaus roared in their defiance, and the Aura of the Fanatic exploded, blinding everyone around them. For just a moment, the Aura extended into Silence, imbuing the weapon with unfathomable power as the Aura, nay Sasha herself, fed into the cold steel.  
  
The two unstoppable forces met, and against all odds the multiton demon lost against the human. The impact shook through the demon's length as Silence sank through Ulfgar's initial wound. The holy weapon tore through to the base of Adthck's head, pinning it to the ground as a veritable shock wave tore through the demon's being and causing its delicate internal organs to rupture.  
  
Yet the sheer physics of a two hundred pound human and a multiton demon charging towards each other at full speed should have left the human a greasy spot on the ground.   
  
Any seige engineer would have thrown up his hands and crawled into a bottle of strong liquor.  
  
Adthck, no seige engineer, simply collapsed.  
  
"Aww, did we hurt ourselves?" Niklaus asked, then smiled with far too many teeth as Fury raised for the deathblow.  
  
"What manner of mortal are you? No Paladin's Auras can pierce my magic!" Adthck responded in his own language.  
  
Niklaus leaned a little closer, so only the demon could hear. "No *holy* magics could do so," Niklaus specified, smiling, "Sasha sends her regards."  
  
At that moment, a terrible burning sensation coursed from the demon's behind. Aghast, Adthck realized that the poison from its stingers had finally crept into its nervous system and had worked through to kill the huge demon.  
  
Adthck stared, horrified that it had at last fallen, knowing this was the ultimate end. In that moment between existence and nonexistence, it thought it saw something in addition to the paladin. Another form, screamingly female, terrifyingly seductive.  
  
A succubus.  
  
Sasha.  
  
Adthck's eyes sparkled in stunned recognition, then dimmed forever. 


	13. Prologue

Lut Gholein celebrated.  
  
The heroes strode into town, eyes blazing it triumph as they humbly welcomed the gratitude of the town. The prince himself came out of his newly de-demoned palace to congratulate the heroes.  
  
For today, Duriel, the Lord of Pain, has fallen in mortal combat. The heroes strode upon his ignoble corpse and announced their triumph to the wonder of the trade city.  
  
It made Duane of Skelgard sick, although most of his comrades assumed it was because he himself wasn't one of the heroes being celebrated.  
  
"Not that any of us are, really," Sasha quipped.  
  
Niklaus nodded. As he watched the band of Paladin march down the road. Simon and his band had slain Adthck, but the Greater Demon didn't seem quite as threatening as Duriel, who was much more reknowned and feared than his favored disciple.  
  
Given the choice, Sasha would have preferred Duriel.  
  
"Well, he's not the brightest," she explained, "and besides, Duriel didn't have half the offensive abilities Adthck did. All Duriel can really do is the whole battering ram thing, and even there Adthck had him outclassed."  
  
"So Duriel was a pushover?"  
  
"I wouldn't say that, but Adthck would have been his superior if he had been made first."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Niklaus excused himself and made his way towards the blacksmith shops. Finding Fara's he made his way in and soon found the blacksmith over her forge.  
  
Silence lay disassembled on a nearby table, the ruined blade set aside.  
  
"You should be out with the other's celebrating the defeat of Duriel," she said with a small smile.  
  
"And what about you, former Protector?"  
  
"I've had my fill of adventures and cheering. I'm happiest here. But you're more interested in Silence, I'll wager."  
  
"I don't mean to offend..." Niklaus began.  
  
"Don't apologize, I can hardly blame you. It's a fine sword."  
  
"Can it be repaired?"  
  
"Oh yes, but it will be hard to find the alloys and materials. I'll have to order it from the smithies in Kurast, but I hear they're on hard times. If it's true that Diablo is attempting to free his brother, he will journey there to do so."  
  
"Then Silence will have to wait for our heroes to free up the trade routes."  
  
"You won't accompany them?"  
  
"Duane plans to. My journey lays elsewhere."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"Yeah, where? What happened to killing demons and all that for the Light?" Sasha inquired.  
  
"And can you honestly say you have the same passion for killing all of the Light's creatures?" Niklaus replied.  
  
"...that's beside the point."  
  
"Is it?"  
  
Sasha paused. "Y'know, this world does have some appeal. Sex is very interesting for guys."  
  
"Maybe we should spend some time getting used to ourself for a while before we go worrying about anyone else. Right now I hear rumors about something new arising in Westmarch. And it'd be nice to see forests again."  
  
Niklaus smiled at the once-paladin. "When it's ready send it to the Rogue Monastery. They're expecting it."  
  
"I never send weapons of this quality away, it's too unlikely they go astray. I'll send word there when it's ready and you can come here for it."  
  
Fin.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Author's notes  
  
Gosh, that was an abrupt ending, it doesn't make much sense for the character, but at this point there is enough stuff about this story that I want to revamp anyway.  
  
Okay, so that's a real rough draft of the Niklaus Saga. And looking back over it, I really regret not writing out a more concrete storyline.  
  
Also, looking back, I'd make a few changes.  
  
First off, leave everything in Westmarch. I feel a lot more comfortable writing in a temperate climate instead of a desert climate. I'm weird.  
  
Second off, leave off some of the other characters, including Simon and Math. I had a few problems with them, one of which being I didn't know what kind of character they were. With Niklaus the idea was to have someone who'd just had his world turned upside down and was trying to cope. I think I had mixed success and he ended up reacting to life much the same way I would have (without all the demons and walking dead, of course). Ulfgar was easy: a big jovial guy who liked food, women and killing things.  
  
Sarah was a little different, and there I think I kinda screwed up. Originally she was there to get killed in Kurast ('cos in the first draft I'd gotten attached to all the rest). There was gonna be a romance between her and Nik, yet it would be unrequited, kind of like a Romeo and Juliet but where Romeo didn't nix himself afterwards.  
  
It didn't work. I found it awkward to write, and the drafts I wrote (I generally go through about four to five per chapter) sucked. Not so much in that they weren't well written IMHO, but that they ran counter to the mood I was trying to create.  
  
See, when this started it was your typical diablo fic with all the character classes marching off to death and glory against a lizard with halitosis a la PLBoD. I thought I'd do something different and make it light-hearted, to counterpoint the dour mood of the game itself.  
  
After a while I realized that the idea of following the storyline sucked. For whatever reason, I had trouble keeping the humorous tone I like to write and it got bogged down.  
  
So I scrapped the diablo storyline and went for my own.  
  
The only problem was that I was about halfway through writing this thing and I didn't want to rewrite all of it. I'm lazy, deal. :P  
  
So I'm eventually going to rewrite this thing from the beginning, and after that I'm going to give everyone their own saga.  
  
Including Duane of Skelgard. Pardon me while I laugh evilly at the hapless Paladin.  
  
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. As corny as this sounds (some wine with my cheese?) everyone's reviews kept this story afloat.  
  
Hopefully, the rewrite will be worth the wait. 


End file.
